It’s official: TAG Heuer makes its return to Formula One as the sport’s Official Timekeeper. And just in time for F1's 75th anniversary celebration.
With a 10-year contract as Official Timekeeper, TAG Heuer reminds us that it was the first luxury brand to grace the hood of a Formula One car back in 1969; TAG Heuer’s partnership with the sport became a model of what shared success can look like. With 750 million fans worldwide, over 90 million social media followers, and a rapidly evolving fanbase that are in need for speed—Formula One’s reach has never been greater.
The 2024 season alone drew an astonishing 1.5 billion viewers, which culminated in a breathtaking showdown between McLaren and Ferrari for the Constructors’ Championship in Abu Dhabi.
“With decades of history in F1 connecting us to the most successful drivers and teams of all time, we are honoured and privileged to be the name connected to the very thing that defines the winner: time,” said Antoine Pin, CEO of TAG Heuer.
TAG Heuer’s presence remains palpable both on and off the track. With trackside branding, Fan Zone and Paddock Club activations, and exclusive timepiece ranges to capture the drama and energy of Formula One, it was a no-brainer for the two brands. Besides, the union of the two seems apt, so intrinsic that picturing a different horological sponsor feels almost impossible.
For now, this iconic partnership is off to a great start with nary a sign of slowing.
Patrick Dempsey’s evolution from Hollywood heartthrob to racing virtuoso reads like something out of a script. Yet, the proof lies in tire marks across Le Mans and podium champagne stains on racing suits. The same eyes that once captured fans on-screen now light up talking about Swiss movement complications and engine horsepower. Trading scrubs for racing suits, Dempsey has earned his stripes far from the glow of studio lights. In this exclusive interview, the Porsche and TAG Heuer ambassador shares how his love of racing and watches perfectly complement each other.
ESQUIRE SINGAPORE: What do you look for in a watch?
PATRICK DEMPSEY: The weight, size, style, and practicality are most important to me.
ESQ: If you were to design a watch that's inspired by a specific car, which car would it be and why?
PAT: I would design a watch around the Porsche 356. The shape, size and simplicity—timeless elegance.
ESQ: What do you derive more enjoyment from, watches or cars?
PAT: I think that watches and cars complement each other. I find equal enjoyment with both.
ESQ: Were there any films that influenced your love with racing?
PAT: When I look back, the film Grand Prix and Le Mans are two films I find to be the most inspirational.
ESQ: Could you talk about your favourite car?
PAT: There is something about the early Porsches that make me smile, they are so much fun to drive because with that design there is such approachability of the car. When I am driving and come in contact with other people on the road, I feel a wonderful warmth from them.
ESQ: If you could have anyone—contemporary/historical figures—on your racing dream team of five; who would they be?
PAT: Juan Manuel Fangio, Sir Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, James Hunt, Aryton Senna.
ESQ: How do you find the time to balance acting and racing?
PAT: I am currently trying to figure that out right now. It is not easy to juggle both at the same time!
ESQ: What's the best advice you have received?
PAT: Never forget where you come from.
ESQ: If you could go back in time, what period would it be?
PAT: The 50’s. I have always found that period in motorsports to be very romantic.
In the world of horology, shapes are more than mere design choices—they tell stories, evoke emotions, and can even challenge the concept of time itself. We often hear about timepieces being as much art as they are instruments of time, after all, each watch has its own story to tell. Some watches embrace symmetry, while others revel in breaking away from it. Design and functionality blur into art, and they challenge how we perceive it. This is our curated selection of watches that do it best.
Circles are inherently paradoxical if you think about it. By definition, they are a perfectly balanced geometrical shape—from the centre to its circumference, every point is of equal length. Yet, this very perfection leaves them vulnerable to imbalance. The slightest nudge can set a circle rolling in any direction, and the smallest irregularity can cause it to deviate off course. We like to think that A. Lange & Söhne’s Zeitwerk Date captures this delicate tension.
On top of the perfectly round 44mm case, the timepiece’s dial perpetuates this symmetry through jumping digital displays positioned at opposite ends. Around them, a grey expanse colours the dial, representing the ambivalent space, the in-between—the balance and the imbalance. The 31 days of the month marches along the dial's circumference, encircling the dial. As time passes over the course of a month, each new day is highlighted in vibrant red, disrupting the equilibrium of the watch.
To call someone “square” is to label them rigid, unbending, immovable. In some contexts, it can also suggest a lack of creativity. However, in the world of horology, where square watches are a rarity, the opposite holds true. Hublot’s Square Bang is the brand’s first foray into square-framed timepieces, and the limited edition Unico All Black Diamonds, in particular, drew us in. With its all-black aesthetic—from the rubber strap to the case and the exposed skeleton dial revealing its inner workings—the watch is a study in darkness. Like a black hole, this little black box on your wrist exerts a gravitational pull, drawing eyes to its depth.
In keeping with the square's reputation for strength, the case is constructed from microblasted and polished black ceramic, an ultra-durable material that’s almost entirely scratchproof. Yet, there’s a muted elegance behind its tough exterior with black diamonds carefully tracing the edge of the case. Rugged yet refined, darkness and sparkle—the Square Bang Unico All Black Diamonds isn’t afraid of stepping out of line.
Snakes have long been linked to time in various cultures. In Ancient Egyptian mythology, the Ouroboros—an iconic symbol of a snake devouring its own tail—represents the cyclical nature of life, death, and time. Hindu mythology has Shesha Nāga, a cosmic serpent that controls the flow of time by coiling and uncoiling itself. Bvlgari carries this idea forward with the Serpenti Tubogas, a watch that is a snake; a snake that tells time.
The case of the watch mimics the skull of a serpent, while its bracelet elegantly coils and wraps itself around the wrist in two-toned rose gold and steel. The watch blends softness and intensity, exuding both vulnerability and ferocity—one might even call it a “women’s watch”, which is ironic considering watches were historically made for women. But I’d like to think the Serpenti Tubogas, much like its celestial counterparts, can transcend boundaries—even the rigid societal ones of today.
Rectangles are natural frames, they create boundaries between worlds. The shape itself is a creative tool, and has long been prevalent in art. Think about it, rectangular frames are used in cinema to give films structure in a closed, controlled space. In painting, rectangles can be used to reinforce themes of isolation. Recall Edward Hopper boxing characters into rooms, or utilising window frames to cut them off from the outside world. Perhaps this is why rectangular watches resonate with me most. Take Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso Tribute Duoface Tourbillon, for instance. Its rectangular frame offers a captivating glimpse into the past.
Measuring just 27mm in width, its sunrayed grey dial with striped engravings on the case evokes the hedonistic elegance of the Art Deco era. However, the hand-assembled flying tourbillion sitting at 6 O’clock is what draws eyes. The case can be flipped to reveal a different face on its underbelly—one that’s more raw and exposed. Whatever you choose, you can rest assured knowing the flying tourbillion will be visible on both sides of the rectangle.
The Cartier Crash needs no introduction. Its elongated case resembles something that’s been melting under intense heat, creating a surreal, pulled effect. The watch is steeped in irony, which shouldn’t come as a surprise with a case as expressive as this. The melted case gives the impression of distorted time, yet it tells time precisely as intended. As if suspended in a moment of chaos, even the Roman numerals have been elongated and stuck in time, yet the sword-shaped blued-steel hands continue their steady ticking. The Cartier Crash’s rarity and desirability on the market almost elevates it to the level of an artefact—one that plays with the idea of time as something mutable. It presents a surreal interpretation of the concept, one where past, present and future twist and meld into one.
Illustration: Joan Tai using Adobe Firefly
Panerai, the kings of the large statement wristwatch, has announced a stealthy all-black model that even it calls “understated elegance”.
The Luminor GMT Power Reserve Ceramica debuted during Miami Design Week, and features a matt black sandwich dial, a black sandblasted ceramic bezel and a titanium DLC case back.
The 44mm watch comes with what the brand calls “a comprehensive suite of functions”.
They include a central hour, GMT, and minute hands, a small seconds dial at 9 o’clock, a power reserve indicator at 5 o’clock, and a date window at 3 o’clock.
“The Luminor GMT Power Reserve Ceramica encapsulates Panerai’s dedication to the concept of functional design. Since the beginning, our timepieces have been created to fulfil specific functions expressed through a very particular design,” says Jean-Marc Pontroué, the brand's CEO.
"Features such as the crown-protecting device and the dial luminosity, originally designed for functionality, have now become integral to the design of the Luminor. This contemporary timepiece, blending Swiss technical prowess and minimal Italian design, seamlessly aligns with the spirit of Design Miami.”
The Panerai Luminor GMT Power Reserve Ceramica, ref. PAM01674 is now available
Originally published on Esquire UK
It has been said that you don’t buy a Mr Jones Watch to get to your train punctually; you buy one to question whether you want to get on that train at all, and whether getting on that train is going to add anything to the sum of human happiness.
Established in 2007 by former fine art, sculpture and computer-related design student Crispin Jones, Mr Jones Watches are both immediately recognisable and unlike any other watch you've ever seen.
Before he got into watches, Jones made an office desk that answered questions.
The questions were things like “Will my love be returned?” “What do my friends think of me?” “Will I find my lost item?” The questions were contained on cards, 30 in all, and to obtain the answers the user had to place them over a metal slot on the desk.
“It was an attempt to use the computer in a similar way that ancient civilisations used oracles,” Jones once told Esquire.
‘The catch was, the metal slot became hotter and hotter as the answer came up". The piece was called The Invisible Force: The Amazing Psychic Table. A barcode was concealed in the pattern on the card, so when you dropped it onto the slot you triggered an electronic reader that slowly produced an answer on a dot matrix.
The answer to “Will my love be returned?” would produce the answer “Yes … if … you … stay … true … to … your…”. By the time the answer got to “true” the card slot would be getting quite hot, but if you withdrew your hand the system would reset and you wouldn’t see the whole answer. The last – very hot – word was “ideals”.
Jones was interested in the way technology was changing our lives: what it gives, and what it takes away.
That's when he began thinking about watches.
“The watch is interesting," he figured, “because we don’t think of it as technology the way we do about phones or computers. And it’s an incredible survivor: most technologies that are 10 years old look incredibly outdated, so that if I use a phone from 10 years ago it’s almost a provocation, and it makes me look massively eccentric. But you’re wearing your wristwatch from the 1950s and it doesn’t seem extraordinary.”
Jones observed that. while many of us tend to walk around with near identical gadgets these days, watches remain one of the few outward signs of our personality.
“And with watches you can weave in a lot of interesting stories and remap the concepts of how we think about time,” he said.
So he began developing his own.
Early Mr Jones Watches designs included The Summissus, subtitled The Humility Watch. This was “an object designed to remind people that death should be prepared for at any time”.
The watch had a mirror face, and alternated between flashing the time and the message “Remember you will die”. (A simplified later version of this was later made available for sale, and was known as The Accurate.)
Then there was Avidus, also known as The Stress Watch.
This reflected the feeling we have of time speeding by when we are stressed, and time slowing down when we are relaxed. The wearer would press the two metal contacts on the face, and a pulse would activate the display.
The more stressed the user, the faster the time would run; the more relaxed the user, the slower, and a meditative state would cause the time to run backwards.
Jones soon opened up his design process to external illustrators, and today Mr Jones Watches concerns itself less with philosophical nature of time and mortality, and more with novel and entertaining ways to approach time-telling. Mr Jones Watches mostly exist to put a smile on your face.
Take Ricochet [sp], for example. This model displays three cartoon robots playing pinball. The three metallic droids, engrossed in the action on the pinball machine, are each hand-gilded in a different metallic foil, so that they twinkle as they catch the light. The scoreboard of the games machine displays the hours and the minutes. In other words, it's the bit that tells the time.
Or there's Monster Melter 3000, in which a spaceman is locked in mortal combat with a terrifying man-eating alien. The position of the spaceman’s ray gun indicates the minutes. The monster’s severed tentacle shows you the hour.
Or how about the Cyclops watch? Instead of conventional hour and minute hands, Cyclops uses a single black circle to mark the passage of time. Each hour is represented by a different coloured circle beneath. The Cyclops is not particularly accurate. That is the point. It is billed as “the perfect Sunday watch”.
The wearer is invited to glance down at their wrist and deduce: “Well, it’s roughly half past the hour”.
For everything else, there is always your iPhone.
Mr Jones Watches has always been an outlier. But in 2024 it finds itself sympatico with an industry where (one argument has it) dial design is prioritised over such historically important factors as the provenance of a watch’s movement, the alloy of its case, or links to some tale or other involving a race car driver or an astronaut or a mountain climber from six centuries ago.
Instead, how about a watch that looks unlike any other, and is whimsical, humorous and fun, into the bargain? For that Mr Jones Watches has your back.
Crispin Jones has workshops in Forest Hill and Camberwell in south London, as well as a busy shop in Covent Garden, and an online shop that ships worldwide. His watches cost between £225 and £695, making them a good first watch, a decent gift or a unique new piece to add to your collection. The company generally puts out around 10 new watch designs each year.
I've long wondered about the process of watch design, so many of them look the same, after all, and have been curious quite how much latitude a designer is allowed before market forces and the pressures of Q4 to shift more 40mm panda-dialled chronographs kicks in, and any fun stuff is relegated to a file marked "Maybe Next Year".
Those are not concerns of Crispin Jones.
The other week, between occasional appearances from Stanley, the friendly office miniature dachshund, Crispin talked to me about how the Mr Jones design process works, why market research is for the birds, and the endless playful possibilities of time.
Here's 35 things I learned.
I think often people see our watches and think “Oh it’s just wacky nonsense. You can’t tell the time with this! It’s impossible!” But there is always a logic to it. There’s a structure, if you’re prepared to engage with it. You might need to relearn a little bit of how to recognise the time. But we’re not asking for much complexity. We’re really not doing things that are just confusing and arbitrary.
One of the most successful watch designs for us is “the swimming pool watch” – A Perfectly Useless Afternoon. Kristof [Devos; Belgium illustrator and author] designed that. His starting point was this quote from a Chinese philosopher that if you’ve learned to spend an afternoon doing absolutely nothing, then you’ve learned to live [the quote is from the 20th Century linguist and novelist, Lin Yutang: “If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live”]. And although you don’t need to know that narrative to appreciate the watch, that underpins it. I think it’s important for him that there’s a conceptual reason behind this guy lying in a swimming pool. That’s what it’s all about.
The second thing with that watch is that there has to be a really elegant way to incorporate the time-telling function. That’s what we always aspire to. The “swimming pool watch” is a really good example, because at any time of the day, whenever you look at it, the image is coherent. It makes sense. And then, if you know how to decode the elements, you can read the time as well. As soon as someone’s explained it to you, it’s obvious. But the first time you see it, your reference is all scrambled because there’s no conventional minute hand. There’s no numerals on there. But the time-telling element is coherent with the image.
There is a more intense subtext to that particular watch, which is explained in the booklet that comes with it. Kristof had an awful car crash where, I think, one of his very close friends died [In 2007, Kristof was holiday in Germany with his now wife, and friends who were newlyweds. The holiday was a wedding gift from Kirstof and his partner. There was an accident, and his friend Tina passed away. “We were all 26,” he has explained. “Nobody expects to lose someone, especially another friend. It was really heavy, it’s still really hard”] and that was his impetus to really cut back on work. He was doing commercial art direction for graphic design firms, which he wasn’t enjoying, and he also did children’s book illustration and authoring, which is what he really wanted to do. And when he proposed this design to us, he was trying to balance his commercial stuff with his more creative ideas. All the artists we work with get a royalty payment. And that watch is so successful that Kristof was able to give up the commercial art direction stuff and refocus on the children’s illustration. He’s now also trained as a teacher, so he teaches high school students. So that watch allowed him to reconsider what he was doing.
If we did any sort of the analysis like that, we would probably learn some stuff. I just worry that that would sort of steal a bit the charm of the whole process. I feel like, then we’d go “Robots and cityscapes sell more than landscapes, so we need to do more of them in Q4”. But it’s never like that.
Our guiding principle is always: “Is this the best version of this artist’s work that we can make in a watch form?” Our business model used to be that we’d do a 100-piece numbered edition. And, if it was super-popular and it sold really fast, then we’d reissue it down the line into the permanent collection. But then the limited editions started selling out really fast, so it became difficult to judge what was popular and what was not so popular. So, then we scaled up to 200-piece editions, and then those started selling out really fast, too. They were going in 25, 30 minutes. What we do now is a 12-hour [order] window [and fulfil all the orders placed within that timeframe]. We’ve always had a lot of customers from the USA, for example. Before, if we did a 200-watch release at midday London time, which is what we used to do, that’s not really sympathetic to someone on the west coast of America, where it’s 5am. We had a situation with people going “I love the design, but I'm furious with you as a company, because I can’t buy it.” That wasn’t ideal.
We’re not systematic. There’s no set of rules for something that makes a Mr Jones watch. We do have substantial numbers of unsolicited submissions, as you can imagine. We do weird designs, so people think “They do anything! I've got an idea for watch, I’ll send it in to you?” We have a submission form. There is a layer of filtering which the customer service team do. But they're instructed to not be super-rigorous. I guess what we always look for is someone with a distinctive quality that we haven’t seen before. Also, someone who brings a story to the design – a narrative. So many of the design submissions we get fall down… There’s a sort-of witty visual pun, and you're like, ‘Yeah, it’s kind of funny, but not really’. Like, they've not really integrated the timekeeping in an elegant way that’s coherent with this narrative they're trying to tell. It is a pretty challenging thing to do. I’d say we get about 250 submissions a year.
Our threshold for recouping our costs is very low, because everything we do is all done internally. We only need to sell maybe 100-150 of each watch in order to recoup the money we’ve invested. And we always sell more than that. That means we can be really free with the design. We don’t have to focus-group it, get a bunch of the customers together, test it…“Do you think this colorway, or the black colorway?” I guess it’s arrogant, in a way. But I think it would lose a lot of that magic if we introduced another voice into the internal company assessment of a design, coupled with the external artists. What if they’re competing voices? Who wins? We’re in a sort of luxurious position where we don't really have to do that.
That's not saying we don't make missteps. There was a watch we did called Tadaima [designed by the London-based Japanese illustrator Yo Hosoyamada], which has a view of the Tokyo cityscape. The limited-edition version had this cat looking out the window, and the minute hand was a bird. There was this nice narrative between the domestic cat that was captive behind the window, and the bird that’s flying free. For the reissue, we sampled it, and we sampled it without the cat, because the cat sat behind this window frame, and it closed in the design quite a lot. It just looked nicer without the cat – it looked more open and less fussy. That watch sold quite well. But now we’re forever getting people saying “Where’s the cat? I like the version with the cat”. So, that was the example of: we’re so fixated on making the best version of that design, and the purity. To my mind, it was a no brainer. The cat was clutter on an asymmetric image. But for a lot of the customers, the cat was really important. So we learned something. We are toying with the idea of bringing the cat back in the new year. But I know what will happen. Then everyone who bought it in between, will be like “Could I return my watch and get the cat version instead?”
We’ve got a pool of illustrators we work with, as well as a number of designs being done in-house each year. Before the illustration is agreed, there’ll be a round of rough sketches where we work out the theme for the watch – the basic design; the core elements; what the timekeeping [function] is going to be; what the feel of it is. There’s a bit of roughing out, so we can get a version of the design that the artists can be happy with. We spend quite a bit of time getting it right and working on screen before we commit anything to engraving plates and mixing up inks, because that gets quite expensive.
Once we’re happy with the basic proportions, we’re committed. Then they'll mix the inks from Pantone references. We use standard colour references, the same graphic designers use. We can generate a recipe for each Pantone shade. They’re fairly good, but they’re not always perfect. So there has to be a bit of by-eye adjusting as we go along. Each colour is printed in turn. It’s a bit like silk screen printing. It’s a combination of screen print and lithography. We’ve got an engraved plate, and then we're printing a single colour at a time off that. Mixing the inks and then setting up the ink on the machine for printing is the labour- and time-intensive period. We need to be fairly confident before we do a sample, because it’s a substantial commitment of time and effort. If there’s multiple colours, which there generally are on our designs, we tend to use pad printing [a prainting technique that uses a silicone pad to transfer a 2D image onto a 3D object, used in the medical, electronics and car industries], but in a fine art way. Pad printing is really an industrial printing technology – originally developed in the watch industry. But mostly in the watch industry it’s used for single or two-colour printing at most. I think the most colours we’ve used is 16. So that’s 16 layers of colour being laid down.
We never really have it where we go “Oh, this idea is non-starter”. You do often get things where the proportions aren’t right. This monster one [Monster Melter 3000] is quite a good example. What we were testing here was we’d print the monster on the glass, but we’d leave the mouth open and have some printing on the dial to give a sense of 3D-ness. The spaceman on the side is the minute hand, and this severed tentacle is supposed to point to the hour. So, it’s saying a quarter to four in the picture. But doing that, we felt the proportions of the two were a bit wrong. The spaceman was probably too small. So, the monster became larger. We scaled up a monster's head and that made it more impactful. But then we felt that the spaceman could also come up in size, which is in the final image. The planet sitting in front of the monster’s tentacle didn’t work either – it made it kind of incoherent. It should be behind by rights.
I wanted something really visually impactful [for Monster Melter 3000]. Our stock green and pink inks were not the brightest, so we sourced some fluorescent inks. That was exciting for the workshop, because they’d never used them before. You get a sense of how much more vibrant it is. At first, we thought “Oh we’ll use them sparingly”. “We'll use them on the monster or maybe on the dial, but we won’t go crazy”. But once you see them on some bits you go “Oh, we’ll just put it on everything! What’s the point of being subtle with it?”
Onorio [D’Epiro; the designer and illustrator who worked on Monster Melter 3000] was really nice to work with. A lot of the artists are working remotely, so we’re having to do it all over email or occasionally Zoom calls. But Onorio lives in Bedford. That’s not super-close to us in south London – but he became really engaged with the process. He came in for a bunch of the key review and resample meetings. We’d sit down and go – “All right, let’s try and brighten the colours”, and maybe we’d make some minor adjustments to the illustration. We can engrave new plates, mix new inks, print a sample, everything from start to finish, and we can do that in half a day. Because Onorio can be there, I can be there, the head of production can be there. We can all review it together – and talk about what's working, what isn’t, what the next step is.
Print technicians are really highly skilled. They tend to come from a fine art print-making background. And it's really nice for them to be recognised, and not be seen as just “the technicians”. What that definition misses is all the problem-solving and the little tweaks that they're doing to the artwork, that go into the printing process to get the best possible result. That’s why it’s nice if the artist comes in. Then they can stand side-by-side with them and watch what’s going on.
I don’t think any of the artists we’ve ever worked with has ever designed a watch before. So, they’re always super-motivated, because even if they’re quite established commercial practitioners, they haven’t been asked to do a watch before. And particularly they haven’t been asked to a watch like ours.
The difference of working at this scale cannot be overemphasised. Most people work on a laptop, so they’re at least working at A4-size. Once you’ve scaled that down to 32-millimeter diameter watch size, something really nice happens with the designs. That focusing of the design in the smaller space. And the pad printing is capable of such fine resolution that you can put a lot of detail in there and still it doesn't get lost. If you’re working on a screen, you get fixated on really minute details. In the reality of a watch, it’ll be so minuscule as to be inconsequential. That’s a good reality check.
I guess it’s not so much a control freak – it’s just more an insistence on getting things right. When we used to work with the factories in the Far East, we’d have a design, get it sent out and they’d do a pretty good job. But we wouldn’t be able to have a dialogue like, “This red, it looks a bit washed out. How can we make that more vibrant and more impactful?” Because they weren’t really engaging on those terms. They were like, “Well, you sent the Pantone reference. We’ve matched that, and we printed it. How much more can we do?” Unless you’re really right in the thick of it, up to your elbows in the ink and stuff, you can’t engage on those terms.
We work principally with two pad print suppliers and they both really value us as clients. Because the work they’re used to doing is printing on pen barrels – putting a one-colour company logo on a pen barrel, to give away at a trade show or something. It’s really boring. So, we’re an unusual client for them. We’ve got odd demands, and high quality demands. And they’re not used to dealing with that.
Our second workshop is in Camberwell, just across the road from the Camberwell Art College. We go around the degree show with the workshop staff, where all the graduating students are showing their work. The last couple of years, we’ve cherrypicked a couple of graduating students and approached them after the show and said, “We’d like to work with you to design a watch”. I graduated from a sculpture BA, many moons ago. So, I know what that’s like –it’s kind of horrible to be released from the cocoon of the art college environment into the real world, without a project.
We get so many submissions where you have a design where you have two spots where you read the hours and minutes, but not in a particularly integrated way. They always suggest numerals. No one ever says “What I’m going to do is rework the hours as different colours. So that you need to learn to read that blue means two o’clock, and green means three o’clock", or whatever it is. I'd really engage that! We get slight variations of the guy in the swimming pool watch So, there'll be a ball and someone playing football or a ball and a dog chasing it. We do get a lot of dog watch submissions – because of Stanley [miniature dachshund/ Mr Jones office dog who also features on a line of t-shirts]. We get endless submissions on that. They think that’s the way to my heart! It’s always a dog chasing a ball, or a dog chasing a bone. People do spend a lot of time on them. It’s kind of heartbreaking. There’s some really talented people out there. They’re just not quite right for us. I wish I could support more.
When you look at the “swimming pool” watch, you can read it without having to numericise it. You don’t have to say “12.35”, you can say – “Oh we’re nearly at lunchtime”, or whatever. You process time in a different way.
We started off doing the skull watch [The Last Laugh, a skull design linked to the tradition of memento mori. Instead of hands, the skull’s teeth display the time.] The hours were on the upper jaw, the minutes on lower. That was the first time I looked into using jump hour mechanism [a watch complication that displays the current hour numerically, in an aperture. When the minute hand completes a full revolution the jump hour mechanism instantly "jumps" to display the next hour]. Because originally that watch used a two-disc quartz mechanism. So, the hour disc was constantly moving. The minute disc was constantly moving. But it became really challenging to read. Because, say at 1.30 – the hour numeral “1” would be in the middle of the jaw. The “30” would be directly below it. By the time you got to “1.55” you’d begin to get the numeral “2” appearing – so then you’re like “Well, is it 2.55 or is it 1.55?” That’s when we bought into getting jump hour modules. And now we use them on several watches. Before that all the watches we did were quartz because I always had the sense that our customers didn't really… I was going to say they didn’t really understand. They probably did understand, but they didn’t really care. They were buying our watches for the design rather than the movement. I feel like now because we’ve been around in the watch world for a while and what we do is quite distinctive, a bunch of people who love [mechanical] watches have found their way to us. They might prefer mechanical watches, so we do them with a slightly higher price, and with a slightly different size case.
The Zombie Pizza watch [created by the artist Mariana Calderón] was another limited edition. It sold well but it didn’t do well enough to get reissued. It happened not to be super-commercial, but that’s alright. Not every watch gets reissued. It doesn’t mean it was an unsuccessful design. Mind you, if we’re speaking in strictly commercial terms, having a watch where a severed finger points to the top the minute and a fly points to the hour… that is quite niche.
There’s a logic with the Cyclops watch [designed by Crispin Jones]. The width of the black circle is five minutes. So, if the circle [crosses over a coloured one beneath it] on the left-hand edge, then that’s five past. But if it’s the width plus the same width as the circle below then that’s 10 past. Equidistant between the circle then it’s half-past. Just touching the preceding circle and it's a quarter-to. [Congratulations if you're still following this, by the way - Ed.] We have thought about it a bit! It’s not just because I liked those colours.
Nobody needs that really functional timepiece anymore, because functional time is taken care of by digital technology: like your phone, your laptop, the screens at the railway station, or whatever. Functional time is all around us. So that’s freed up the watch to be a purely expressive, personality-carrying piece of male jewelry. It’s a way to have male body adornment, where fewer of those opportunities traditionally exist for men. There will always be people who want a flash accessory that embodies some of the technical precision of the world, a watch like a chronograph, for example. But dial design has definitely become more of a central focus, more recently.
At the Royal College of Art, I was influenced by former student Anthony Dunne, whose book Hertzian Tales argued for a more considered critique of electronic products, not least a reexamination of everyday objects on aesthetic grounds. In 2004 I wrote a manifesto posing two questions: "How could a watch undermine its wearer?" and "What if the watch could express some of the negative aspects of the wearer’s personality?" But his most provocative question was "How can the watch represent time in a more unpredictable and provocative way". Dunne was interested in what he called critical design, which was using the language and tools of product design as a form for social critique. My background before then was in fine art and sculpture. So then coming on a design course, I was naturally drawn towards something that was a bit less utopian and a bit more strange. One of the things that he talked about a lot was called value fiction, where an author’s values and beliefs are revealed through the plot. So that language, how we think of the watch – the personality, and the communicating aspect – has become the most important thing. I think that stuff is really interesting. That was my way in to designing watches.
I worked for Philips Design for a while. Philips Design in the late 1990s, early 2000s, invested a lot of money in wearable technology. They did collaborations with Levi’s and made these kind of funky snowboarder jackets with built-in MP3 players. It was kind of cool and interesting. But it wasn’t leveraging something that was genuinely happening. Snowboarders were not sellotaping their MP3 players to their sleeves in order to be able to access the controls on the slopes. So, it failed. But I thought the watch was a really interesting [object] because it has this really long history – at least back to First World War, if you’re talking about wristwatches. And if you’re talking pocket watches, you go back another couple of 100 years. Its enduring appeal is partly for those reasons we’re talking about. It communicates something about personality as well as being this sort of functional tool.
One of the fundamental shifts from when I started Mr Jones Watches, is that I thought that meant I needed to design all the watches. That's what it was! Other people can go and do Fred Blogs Watches. I’m Mr Jones Watches! But after four years, I was kind of flagging, and the quality was slightly deteriorating, and I thought it would be interesting to collaborate with different people who had an interesting relationship to time.
Early on, I asked an illustrator, Fanny Shorter, who I know quite well, if she would do some designs for us. And that was really nice. I knew her a bit. But I didn’t know her so well that I would feel an obligation to realise her design. She was really good, because she didn’t understand anything about what we could and couldn’t do [ie: any limitations in watch design]. She mostly did illustration for textiles and for wallpaper, and mostly worked in screen prints. She didn’t do one million colours on her designs, which was important, because we can’t do a million colours either. She really helped us to drive things forward. [Shorter’s watch design, The Promise of Happiness features a tiger playing under moonlight. The hour is displayed in the moon, while the minutes are camouflaged within its stripes]. That was really good for growing the knowledge of what Mr Jones watches could be. That’s when I stepped back more and had other people do the designs. I wouldn't have expected that, when I started the company, because my ego wouldn't have allowed it. So there’s been a growth from my side as well.
The skill set we have as a company is really to do with editing designs. When I say “I’m an editor”, it sounds quite lukewarm. It doesn’t sound as glamorous as being “the creator”. But, actually, having a design and recognising what’s strong with it, and what’s working, and refining it down, that’s the hard bit. And that’s what we're really good at now.
Putting the word “remember” on the hour hand, and “you will die” on the minute hand, that was my idea. That was really my statement piece. But I can’t keep coming up with iconoclastic sayings like that, year after year. My background is not really doing the pictorial-type designs. And that’s what our company is good at now. The pictorial image with a time-telling function integrated into it.
The skull watch [The Last Laugh] was a collaboration with a comedian [it was created with the comic William Andrews, and features artwork by the British tattoo artist Adrian Willard]. I thought comedians had a really interesting relationship to time and timing. [Andrews] talked a bit about dying on stage and how people would say to him, “You’re so brave doing what you do”. And he’d say, “If I have a bad day at work, the consequence is = people don’t laugh”. But if you're a surgeon or something and you have a bad day at work the consequences are far more serious.
I just thought watches generally work as gifts. And if you’re giving a watch as a gift, there’s always that moment of opening it. Most watch brands sell the watches on a little cushion with the strap done up, so the box needs to be quite big. But if you fasten the strap then it's marked the strap before you've even opened it. Also, our boxes fit through the letterbox.
People say we’re gimmicky. Gimmicky implies something is flashy or no good or has no substance. But there’s a coherence behind our work! I don’t want to slag off other people, but there was a company that were making something they called watches, but without a time-telling function. They were these little things you wore on your wrist that had a sort of duck pond on them, that were three-dimensional. That’s my definition of a gimmick. Because someone will get that and say “How do you tell the time with that?” Well, you can’t. Even when our watch is something playful like a pig escaping from a tractor beam [the Beam Me Up! watch], it still functions.
Originally published on Esquire UK
There’s a trend in the watch world that’s currently gaining momentum.
Mid-market (and a bit above) ready-to-wear brands seem to have noticed the appeal of an Eighties-style digital watch.
Two weeks ago, Maison Margiela’s diffusion line MM6 launched a wristwatch with Timex, adding its famed numeral branding onto a T80. Much to the delight of the maison’s fans, it only costs SGD256.
Now the next episode of ‘French fashion house X affordable watch brand collab’ has arrived, via a partnership between A.P.C and Casio.
As of today, an updated version of the A1000 model is available to purchase from A.P.C’s digital and physical stores, but many of its original qualities have remained intact.
It comes in silver and gold (naturally) and still features an alarm, stopwatch and an LED backlight. In keeping with its famed vintage aesthetic, this model has a slim profile, an octagonal case and an LCD screen in the centre of the dial to display the time.
Much like the fashion brand itself, the design is minimalist, with barely visible branding on the screen. So much so that the mode indicators for each button have been engraved on the caseback, surrounding the A.P.C’s guitar dagger logo.
But why is the fashion world taking such an interest in digital right now? Well, it's a good entry level watch for someone who isn't particularly plugged into horology, primed for those who prefer reading about what happening at the catwalks over Watches and Wonders. Have your (Casio) stopwatches at the ready, as these types of collabs are coming in fast.
The A.P.C x Casio A1000 watch is available A.P.C. stores and their website.
Originally published on Esquire UK
In the vast, unknowable expanse of the ocean, senses dull and time seems to ebb and flow with the currents. But this is where a diver’s connection to the seconds ticking away on their watch becomes profoundly intimate. This connection to land is where time remains a constant. When you are in an underwater environment, only the most reliable timepiece will suffice. Enter the next generation of TAG Heuer Aquaracer, the quintessential diving watch renowned for its unyielding durability and deep-water resistance. Two iterations will be released, the Aquaracer Professional 300 Date and Aquaracer Professional 300 GMT.
Both feature a rotating ceramic bezel, allowing divers to track their elapsed time spent underwater. A screw-down crown creates an impenetrable seal against external elements, while the double safety clasp offers peace of mind for dives up to the watch’s 300m water-resistance limit. Additionally, the strap boasts an advanced adjustment system, adapting to every wrist with five adjustable positions.
Maya Gabeira and Kai Lenny are two of the biggest wave surfers in the world. As ambassadors for TAG Heuer, Lenny and Gabeira often don the Aquaracers when they are out at sea. Dependability is key. In the depths of both watches lies the COSC-certified TH31 automatic movement, which offers 80 hours of power reserve and a five-year extended warranty. However, a slight distinction exists between the models: the date model contains the TH31-00 calibre, while the model comes with the TH31-03 calibre, which—you guessed it—allows for an additional time-zone complication. Thanks to the TH31 movement, both ranges come equipped with a magnified date ticker at 6 o’clock.
Drawing from the ocean’s palette, both models will be available in black, blue or green. Reflections of the ocean waves are engrained into the dial, serving as a backdrop for the hands. Another mark of reliance in the Aquaracer is recognising the importance of legibility in the deep blue. TAG Heuer has designed an enlarged shield-shaped hour hand and sword-shaped minute hand, complemented by an orange seconds hand symbolising safety. Rhodium-plated hands and indexes, treated with Super-LumiNova, ensure visibility even in the darkest depths.
The new Aquaracer Professional 300 Date and GMT, TAG Heuer strikes a delicate balance between robust construction, precise timekeeping and thoughtful design. They aren’t just tool watches, they are in Lenny and Gabeira’s words, “constant companions”, especially when you venture the realm beneath the the TAG Heuer surface and into the ocean’s embrace.
Have you ever wondered about the concept of time? Whether we consciously choose to take notice of it or not, time remains constant. For some, time may feel like a continuous force that races by and never stops. While for others, time is cherished and embraced as a precious commodity. Over the years, my journey with time and my love for horology has impacted the way I view and approach life.
Admittedly during my early teens, I had little to no interest in watches. To me, they were merely an accessory to tell time, and I had always been the kid who preferred tinkering and getting handsy instead with tech gadgets. At the end of high school, the social media wave took over and photos of trendy timepieces would flood my feed. I vividly remember being exposed to the macro and caseback magic and that was how my love story with horology began. In fact, the more I learnt about the intricate workings and how the delicate balance of gears, springs and hands moved in perfect synchrony, I became increasingly captivated. Horology was a slippery slope, they said; but still, I could not look away.
Over time, I realised I would subconsciously link personal objects to a special occasion, milestone or a specific period of my life. My first watch was gifted to me by my father: a Rolex Datejust 16233 to commemorate my 18th birthday. For me, this timepiece marked the beginning of my journey into adulthood and horology; and today remains a treasured heirloom. My watch collection is essentially a time capsule of my favourite memories and achievements. Some of these pieces also serve as tangible reminders of real moments in time, such as losing a loved one, as well as learning to embrace the little things in the everyday. Life is truly a series of interconnected events, each with its own significance and timing.
If life moves with time, then we are expected to be adaptable and resilient, just as watches require regular winding and adjustments. Horology has taught me to embrace both change and continuity. Case in point, we often see vintage watches being restored to their former glory, symbolising the ability to adapt and renew. On the other hand, modern pieces that push the limits of watchmaking are also more present than ever, representing innovation and progress. This balance of old and new honours the past and embraces the future, mirroring my own growth and journey. Moreover, my passion for horology has given me numerous opportunities to intimately experience timepieces I never imagined I would, as I immersed myself in the watch community.
From piece uniques and tourbillons to minute repeaters and grand complications. The child in me would never have expected this to be a reality. As much as it is a delight to encounter such exquisite watches, the true value of my hobby lies in the authentic and heartfelt friendships I have formed over the years through watch communities. The camaraderie and shared experiences make every moment in this hobby deeply rewarding and memorable.
As individuals, it is important for us to have something relatable in all that we do, and I am thankful that my love for horology has provided me with that connection. From scouring the depths of the Internet for information on specific watch references, to now knowing some of the most knowledgeable and humble people in the industry, I am grateful for how far this unexpected hobby has taken me.
Ryan Ong's writings on watches can be found at Curated Times.
In the world of Formula 1 racing, million-dollar machines dance on the edge of control, the smell of burning rubber lingers, and the fight for the checkered flag intensifies. The Singapore Grand Prix in September promises to deliver another thrilling spectacle, as human and machine hurtle down the Marina Bay Street Circuit in person unison under the glittering night sky. This is our select curation of watches that capture the essence of competition, speed, and racing.
What could be more fitting for a Formula 1 racing watch than to endure the rigours and intensity of competition? TUDOR rigorously tested its latest Black Bay Ceramic “Blue” by dunking it in freezing water, placing it in magnetic fields, and subjecting it to a series of challenges—all under the scrutinising eyes of the Federal Institute of Metrology, or METAS. Tested for precision, magnetic resistance, water resistance, and power reserve, it emerged victorious, cementing itself as one of the industry’s finest in chronometry and magnetism resistance, thanks to its robust MT5602-1U calibre. Celebrating TUDOR’s return to motorsport, the watch showcases a rotatable sand-blasted black ceramic bezel and the iconic “snowflake” hands, treated with Super-Luminova. The blue domed dial is complemented by a leather and rubber hybrid strap with blue stitching, completing its race-ready look.
In a sport where fractions of a second can determine how high you stand on the podium, precision is king. Omega’s pursuit of horological accuracy has led to the culmination of a single timepiece: the Speedmaster Super Racing. Thanks to the newly patented technical innovation known as “Spirate”, the Omega 9920 calibre is able to fine-tune its movement plus or minus 0.1 seconds per day, resulting in a complete accuracy of 0/+2 seconds per day. This is Omega's most precise timepiece ever. The watch’s design is a high-octane blend of black and yellow, echoing a bumblebee motif. A black ceramic bezel contrasts sharply with a yellow tachymeter scale, while an assured honeycomb dial drives home the theme. Beyond appearances, the Speedmaster Super Racing features a 12-hour chronograph, date function, and a 60-hour power reserve.
You’ve never seen a car-inspired watch manifested like this. Roger Dubuis has partnered with Lamborghini to shatter the creative boundaries of design and engineering. The Excalibur Spider Huracán Monobalancier features an open architecture which reveals a semi-skeletonised movement that resembles the inner workings of a supercar engine. A twin barrel power supply allows the RD630 calibre to deliver a power reserve of 60 hours while maintaining self-winding capabilities. Constructed of titanium, the watch features a balance wheel positioned at 12 O’clock and tilted at a 12-degree angle to mimic the Huracán’s rev counter. Between 5 and 7 O'clock, a discreet date display is cleverly integrated between the dual barrels. Flip the watch over and you’ll witness the full rotor spinning in plain sight through an open caseback, designed to resemble a Huracán wheel rim. This is watchmaking meets automotive engineering in the most visceral way possible.
The Top Time was Brietling’s first foray into the world of terrestrial speed in 1964. Stripped of unnecessary details, the chronograph was instead adorned with bold, graphic displays designed to resonate with a younger audience. Fast forward to 2023, and Brietling revisited this line, this time with the edition of the B01 Ford Thunderbird. Clocking in at a robust 41mm, the watch boasts a pristine white dial with simple printed baton indices, an outer tachymeter ring, and a needle-shaped chronograph seconds hand—vintage sport chronograph features that whisper rather than shout.
This allows for other features to take centre stage, like the rounded-square sub-dials that serve as a nod to the mid-century design, as well as the perforated red leather racing strap that mimics the interior of a Ford Thunderbird. The engine powering the watch is the reliable B01 automatic chronograph movement, a certified chronometer with a power reserve of 70 hours. Talk about horsepower.
For his first menswear collection for Gucci, creative director Sabato De Sarno focused on strengthening house codes seen through a more modern lens. The Autumn/Winter 2024 menswear collection saw accessories making their own statements—distinct in form yet not brashly shouting to be heard. Dressed in the House's now signature Rosso Ancora shade, staples like the Double G belt and the Horsebit loafers-turned-creepers reflect a renewed Gucci aesthetic.
Photography: Shawn Paul Tan
Styling: Asri Jasman
Photography Assistant: Chay Wei Kang
In an age where stainless steel watches are mass-produced by stainless steel machines, independent watchhouse Lang & Heyne is a refreshing anomaly. Their secret? Crafting every watch by hand. German watchmaker Jens Schneider, under the leadership of CEO Alexander Gutierrez, is steadfast in their commitment to traditional craftsmanship and vintage design.
But what does it take to marry the old with the new; to balance heritage with innovation? We sit with Gutierrez and Schneider to delve into the heart of Lang & Heyne, the challenges of carving out an identity in a crowded market and the sheer artistry behind each timepiece.
ESQUIRE SINGAPORE: Who is Lange & Heyne for?
ALEXANDER GUTIERREZ: You are in our target group if you are someone who appreciates fine craftsmanship, whether it's handmade cars like Morgan or Pagani, or gourmet food and fine dining. Our customers are connoisseurs who are settled, not show-offs. They cherish what they own for themselves. If you enjoy admiring the movement of a watch and winding it yourself, you could be one of our targets.
ESQ: What have been some of the most significant challenges you’ve faced as CEO, and how have you overcome them?
ALEXANDER: The biggest challenge has been defining the DNA of Lang & Heyne, a relatively young brand at just 21 years old. Unlike established brands, we don't have a long history or celebrity endorsements to lean on. Instead, our focus is on the product itself, emphasising high-end craftsmanship and in-house production. Our Saxonian heritage plays a crucial role, and we honour it by naming our watches after Saxonian kings, rather than using reference numbers. Balancing traditional watchmaking with contemporary approaches, like using both handcrafting and modern machinery, has been key. Bringing all that together, and in the end, having a successful company, is the main challenge, I would say.
ESQ: Given the prevalence of contemporary watch designs, why has Lang & Heyne continued its commitment to vintage design elements?
ALEXANDER: We want to maintain our Saxonian roots and heritage, which is why we continue with vintage design elements. Our approach is more about elegance and tradition rather than flashy, complicated features. We focus on craftsmanship, especially the artistic work done by hand, which is central to our brand's identity. This combination of vintage design with a contemporary approach is what sets us apart. For example, the Sincere Platinum Jubilee Edition showcases this blend by incorporating modern materials like ceramic while retaining a classic aesthetic.
ESQ: What are the current trends in the luxury watch market, and how is Lang & Heyne positioning itself to stay ahead?
ALEXANDER: The current trend in the luxury watch market is a shift towards independent watchmakers and unique, niche products. Don’t get me wrong, I don't want to say big brands are not important anymore, but collectors and enthusiasts are increasingly seeking something different and special. At Lange & Heyne, we focus on artisan craftsmanship and customisation, allowing customers to personalise details like hands, dial colours, and materials. This personalised approach sets us apart from larger brands that often can't offer such bespoke options. By catering to these niche demands, Lange & Heyne is becoming a significant player in the independent sector.
ESQ: Can you walk us through your creative process when designing a new watch?
JENS SCHNEIDER: A Lang & Heyne watch should be one you can use every day. We don't want to make watches that just sit in a cupboard. It should be easy to read the time and simple to wind. That's the starting point for me. Then I think about the watch's character. The next step is to gather information from my mind—things I've seen in historical watches and technical solutions—and combine them with my own ideas. You can't invent a completely new watch; it's about creating new combinations of known elements from the past with new technology or materials.
Next, I create a simple sketch of the gear train. It's just circles, but the dimensions of the circles determine the correct position of the hands on the dial. The final step is to design the watch in 3D on the computer. This isn't easy because you have to consider how all the parts fit together. If you change one part, you have to think about how it affects the others. This is the process we follow.
ESQ: How do you balance aesthetics with functionality when designing a new watch?
JENS: A watch that looks good but has no function isn't truly aesthetic. The function is what matters. For example, a very small balance wheel in the corner isn't appealing because it doesn't function well. It's all about the combination: the function should lead, and the aesthetics should serve the function
ESQ: How do you integrate modern technology with traditional watchmaking techniques?
JENS: You need to be knowledgeable about materials. For instance, using a diamond tool requires a combination of skilled craftsmanship and modern materials. We also use modern machinery. Today, I design using Computer Numerical Control (CNC) programs and machines to create the raw parts. For example, the hands of the Louis watch have a traditional shape, which we achieve through hand engraving after the raw material is cut with a laser.
ESQ: How do you two collaborate on a project from concept to completion?
JENS: We usually start with a brainstorming session, whether it's an idea from a customer, a special request, or an internal concept. We discuss the feasibility of the idea, considering both creative and practical aspects because a watchmaker has many ideas, but you cannot realise every idea. We have to consider the economic or capacity constraints, so we prioritise based on importance and resource availability.
ALEXANDER: We often work on custom projects, whether for a large order from a group like SHH or a single piece for an individual customer. The process involves detailed discussions about design, complications, and production logistics. For instance, when Sincere Haute Horlogerie requests a specific number of watches, we assess our ability to meet that volume and the specific requirements. Throughout the project, there's constant communication to refine the design and ensure it aligns with both our capabilities and the customer's expectations. For example, the success of previous models like the first and second Georg gave us confidence in the design's appeal and guided the project from concept to completion.
Hublot teams up with renowned tattooist Maxime Plescia-Büchi fora collaboration series. With Plescia-Büchi’s assertive relief placed ontoHublot’s flagship Big Bang model, it becomes a welcomed alchemy. A magic circle trapped onto the dial if you will; attention is drawn towards these three-dimensional leylines etched onto the geometry of the watch.
Last year, Plescia-Büchi moved to the Spirit of Big Bang—where the Big Bang 42mm model is infused with a “barrel”-shaped case. In a reveal, the Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu is a skeletonised automatic chronograph(HUB4700) with the date at 4:30, a 50-hour power reserve and are designed oscillating weight. Limited and fashioned in three materials—titanium, ceramic, gold—the Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu took centrestage at the Salone del Mobile inMilan.
Once more into the breach, another Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu was released, this time in sapphire. The material’s transparency enhances the sharpness of Plescia-Büchi’s designs; with the only non-transparent elements being the crown, the pushbuttons, the screws on the case, the6 H-shaped screws on the bezel and the folding clasp. While it is as tough as a diamond (9 on the Mohs scale),the Spirit of Big Bang Sang Bleu in Sapphire is, unfortunately, impervious to being sold widely as it’s limited to only 100 pieces worldwide
