patrick_y
[PuristSPro Moderator]
33546
Chopard is actually a brand that really does make some top level products...
I really like the Chopard LUC collection and I own one Chopard with the swan neck spring and the 96 series movement; this movement is COSC Certified and Geneva Seal certified. The Swan neck spring is also rarely seen in Swiss brands now - to the new generation of watch collectors, when they looked at my Chopard, they assumed that it was a Glashutte based brand since they assume that all swan neck spring brands are Glashutte based. One even said incredulously, "for a German movement, it doesn't have a 3/4 plate." He was even more surprised when I told him that it was a Swiss brand run by a German family. Mind blown!
Villeret models are truly another level. Even higher level than the Big Four Swiss brands (Breguet, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, and Vacheron Constantin) in some ways.
Zero-Seconds Reset and Minute Detents; Special Praise to Glashütte Original
WatchProSite Moderator Patrick_y is concerned about setting his watches to the precise second and minute, and wishes more watch brands would create a user experience that allows this. While the German watch industry has some of these features, the Swiss i...
Wow, thank you for this impressive write-up!
May I add that Lange 1815 up & down has a different take on this - when the ppwer is depleted that watch has a feature that would stop the seconds hand exactly at 60/0, and when you start winding the watch it would start running immediately after the firs...
Yes! That is a super special feature of the Lange 1815 Up Down!
I still haven't entirely figured out how they get the watch to stop there. But it's so cool!
J'adore les detents des minuits!
I really like the minute detents. Very few watches have this! We need more minute detents! MORE! More! More! Write your ministers and politicians! We want minute detents on our watches! Honk your horn for minute detents!
OOooooh my goodness!
Oops. We are a family friendly website! Yikes! I was up until midnight writing this so I was a little tired, but that's not what I meant! Thank you for the correction!
I believe I included this detail in my ownership review many years ago.
Gosh, 2009 or maybe 2010. The passion can only be captured through actual ownership. I should go back and re-read it. I received a response from GO through my dealer after the article posted.
Agree with all of this.
I love the minute detente and zero-reset. It feels so radically correct when you get to set the watch like that to maintain the correct relationship between hands/hands/markers. This is a gripe I deal with all too often. Fortunately, I was able to play wi...
It's such a nice watch!
Blancpains are fantastic. And good luck with that Glashutte Senator Chronometer - which one would you get? Rose gold? White gold? Silver/blue/off-white dial? I really like that silver friction applied dial. Although they charge a hefty premium for that di...
Interesting write-up…
And I fully agree with you in principle. However I can well imagine that the customers do not seem to care enough to walk with their feet, allowing the brands to slack here 🤷🏻♂️ When you say Swiss, you are missing (at least) one exception. Chopard offers...
Chopard is actually a brand that really does make some top level products...
I really like the Chopard LUC collection and I own one Chopard with the swan neck spring and the 96 series movement; this movement is COSC Certified and Geneva Seal certified. The Swan neck spring is also rarely seen in Swiss brands now - to the new gener...
But as both Gnutti and Montblanc found out…
Product alone doesn’t seem to suffice for success 🤷🏻♂️
Sadly, not.
Sadly, putting your product on a movie star or on a football star seems to be a better guarantee of success.
I think all of your latest watches have hacking seconds!
All the Chopards you recently procured have it!
Hmm! That's interesting!
I need to check my Panerai. I think it hacks. Not sure though. And I do have a Panerai that has no seconds hand at all.
Actually after checking my 372 and 662 don’t hack, but my 422 does. However for the 422 the second hand is not sync with the … seconds. Not sure what that means but this is what the panerai service center told me when they regulated it
So this mean the minutes hand can track perfectly to the atomic clock but the second hand indicator can be off by 20 second …as if the second indicator is not tied to the main movement
Thank you for my next project. ;-)
I will spend the rest of the afternoon examining my watches to identify those with hacking seconds and those without.
The German watches often do have it!
The Swiss watches sometimes don't! And oddly, the expensive Swiss watches from some of the top commercial brands often don't!
Senator Chronometer is a very impressive watch
You take it in hand and you feel amazing quality.
My favorite model!
I keep on telling myself I don't need another watch. I don't need another watch. It's such a well executed timepiece though! I rather like it! It's a tad too big on my wrist though.
When a watch company raves about its accuracy..
But doesn't allow you to set the time accurately... It makes no sense!! Thank you for touching on something that has bugged me ever since I got into fine horology. A zero reset should be the minimum for every watch. I like to set my watch with the seconds...
Bugs me too.
We must be geniuses since we think alike... Yes... How come big brands often forget this important little detail? It's almost criminal!
So many watches don't hack!
I sometimes try games to get my Pateks and Bulgaris to get their seconds sync'd up. It's not reliable though. For instance, when the Bulgari has stopped at 22 seconds, when my reference time gets close to 20 seconds I start winding the watch and hoping th...
I was trying to remember the Mortiz Grossman when I wrote about this topic...
And I couldn't remember exactly how it worked. So I didn't mention it. I felt that so few people knew what Glashutte Original is - it's such a forgotten brand sometimes; that mentioning Moritz Grossman would make this article just go over most people's he...
great write-up Patrick ! I do tend to agree upon your points... zero-set is minimum that needs to be considered by watch makers/brands...
btw Chopard tourbillon is another one that hacks... ...
Oh my goodness! What a beauty!
I didn't know it hacked! I knew the non Tourbillon 96-series movements didn't really hack when they first came out and they've only recently started to hack in the past few years. Never knew about the Tourbillon. Thanks for sharing this lovely detail abou...
Great and thought provoking post.
Unfortunately for me, that means at least three more characteristics that should be captured in my watch reference database. Back to the salt mines....
We're going to be digging for a long time!
I don't think there are many models available with all the features we want!
This is an exceptional post.
I could t agree more. Several of my most expensive watches do not have a hacking second which does drive me insane. But I guess art doesn’t make sense all the time. At least that’s how I justify it 😎.