Corum Bubble

In the year 2000 Corum introduced the Bubble, an oversized replica watches uk sale with an even larger crystal. It was so radical it became the must-have timepiece of the new millennium. Now, exactly 15 years later, the Bubble makes a triumphal return, sealing its place as a pillar of Corum’s watchmaking heritage.

At the turn of the century watchmaking was a universe away from what it is today. Big watches were scarce, unconventionally shaped watches almost unheard of. The tectonic shift began as the 21st century dawned, with Corum riding on the top of the wave that would soon sweep watchmaking.

At Baselworld 2000 the Bubble was unveiled, an unparalleled 44 mm in diameter with a towering sapphire crystal so tall it distorted the dial. With a size and shape totally unprecedented in Swiss replica watchmaking, the Bubble was an instant hit.

The Bubble was the brainchild of the late Severin Wunderman, a relentlessly creative entrepreneur who acquired Corum that very same year. Wunderman, who survived both the Holocaust and cancer, had a roving, creative mind. In one instance, he was inspired by an experimental deep-sea dive watch from the 1960s, which was fitted with an enormous domed crystal to withstand the pressure of the ocean. That formed the genesis of the Bubble, one of the most recognizable wristwatches of its time.

While the Bubble was unquestionably unique, its unorthodox design was merely an extension of Corum’s long-established philosophy. Since its founding in 1955, Corum consistently excelled at designing totally original timepieces, ranging from the Rolls-Royce, shaped like the luxury automobile’s front grille, to the Golden Bridge, distinguished by its remarkably tiny, baguette-shaped movement.

Despite being a mere 15 years old, the Bubble is major part of the brand’s heritage, deserving of elevation into a hall of fame. The Bubble has now been revived as part of the Corum Heritage collection, putting it alongside other landmark timepieces like the extra-thin Coin Swiss fake watches online.

While retaining all the design codes of the original, the 2015 Bubble is not a mere replica of its predecessor. Fitted with a rubber-ringed, spherical crown, the case is a collection of smooth, rounded lines, just like the original.

But it has been enlarged to 47 mm, lending it impressively striking proportions, especially as it stands some 18.8 mm high, crystal included. But, as always, practicality was high on the mind of the development team, which paired the oversized case with short, curved lugs, allowing it to hug the wrist snugly.

A remarkable 8 mm high, this sapphire crystal is one of the largest of any watch. Sapphire is a material so extraordinarily hard it has to be cut with a diamond-tipped tool. This in itself is challenging enough that even when machining ordinary, flat Breitling fake watches uk crystals the job can take hours. Crafting the mountainous crystal of the Bubble requires exponentially more work. The task starts with cutting a block of crystal, then grinding it into a bubble-like shape, and finally polishing the crystal to flawless clarity with absolutely no optical imperfections.

Because the sapphire crystal is so tall, it acts as a lens, both magnifying and distorting the dial. Corum’s designers took advantage of this by designing a dial with a clever, op art (short for “optical art”) motif. Taking inspiration from Hungarian-born French artist Victor Vasarely, founder of the op art movement, the dial is decorated with squares in graduated sizes that grow larger toward the center of the dial.

Op art desired to create static patterns that gave the impression of movement or surprising, contradictory perspectives. Likewise, the dial of the Bubble is perfectly flat, formed from a lacquered, brass disc stamped with the cube motif, but appears sharply domed. In fact, it looks so rounded it might pass for the top of a sphere.

This arresting op art dial will be fitted only to a pair of limited edition, PVD-coated versions of the Bubble, each made in an exclusive run of just 350 pieces. The first is the Bubble Vintage, housed in a bronze-tone, PVD-coated case paired with Super-LumiNova treated for a vintage effect. A modern fake watches store made to look like an antique from an indistinct era, the Bubble Vintage is a nod to the original Bubble now 15 years old.

Taking another perspective is the Bubble All Black, clad entirely in a glossy black PVD coating, matched by a matte black dial, along with charcoal-colored indices and hands. The Bubble All Black removes all distraction, making a monochromatic statement that emphasizes the iconic shape of the Bubble.

Part of the regular collection of timepieces, the third model in the Bubble collection does away with the dial entirely. A skeletonized movement takes its place, with the domed sapphire crystal providing a magnified view of the exposed wheels of the CO0082 self-winding movement.

All of the Bubble timepieces are fitted with rubber straps topped with leather: calfskin for the op art editions and alligator skin in the case of the skeleton. And each is fitted with a buckle matching the case finish.

Look, Ma, No Hands: 5 Watches That Tell Time Differently

The vast majority of replica watches uk store stick to traditional hour and minute hands to display the time, but a handful of bold manufacturers use their technical prowess to find new, innovative, and often downright audacious methods to indicate the hours, minutes, and occasionally even other functions. Below is a list of unusual watches that deviate from the conventional time-telling style, finding creative alternatives to hour and minute hands.

Introduced at Baselworld 2013, the HM3 Megawind by MB&F features a movement designed by Jean-Marc Wiederrecht that features an oversized “battleaxe” rotor. As with other MB&F “horological machines,” the hour and minute are indicated by revolving cones, machined from solid blocks of aluminum to paper thinness, housed inside larger cones made from brazed gold and sapphire.

MB&F's HM3 Megawind - front/back

HYT’s H1 does away with the hour hand, instead indicating the hour by means of a green liquid that flows through a tube along the edge of the dial. This unconventional cheap replica watches uk is famous for being powered by a system of bellows used to pump the liquid forward. Click here for our detailed analysis of how the HYT H1 works.

HYT's H1

A year after it introduced the H1, HYT brought out the H2 model (titanium/white gold version below), which added three additional functions: a power-reserve indicator, a temperature indicator and an “H-N-R” indicator. The latter is connected to the crown and tells the wearer which position the crown is in — H for setting the time, N for neutral, and R for winding (remonter in French).

HYT H2 - Titanium White Gold-Blue

Christophe Claret’s X-TREM-1 features a tourbillon and uses magnetic fields to create the illusion of hour and minute indicators floating through the air. Two small steel spheres – hollowed to make them lighter – are encased within two sapphire tubes placed to the right and left of the caseband and controlled by precision magnetic fields generated by two miniature magnets moved by cables. The position of each sphere indicates the hour and minute.

Christophe Claret X-TREM-1

One of the most unconventional timepieces in the always-innovative Harry Winston Opus collection is the Harry Winston Opus XI, with its futuristic, moving dial. Every hour, on the hour, in the span of 2 or 3 seconds, the numerical hour display – a system comprised of a multitude of wheels, pinions, arbors, bearings and tiles – disintegrates into utter chaos and then returns to order for the remainder of the hour. Click here to discover how this top Breitling replica watch’s miraculous movement pulls off this feat.

Harry Winston Opus XI

Timepiece Timeline: Top 10 Milestones from 10 Years of Greubel Forsey Watches

Greubel Forsey, the boutique luxury replica watches brand specializing in complicated watches with multiple tourbillons, marked its 10th anniversary in 2014. Though it still produces only around 100 pieces per year, the Greubel Forsey watch brand has come a long way since its memorable debut at the 2004 Baselworld watch fair, and can look back on a decade of milestones. Here are the top 10.

2004: The Double Tourbillon 30° Marks the Foundation of the Greubel Forsey brand

Frenchman Robert Greubel and Englishman Stephen Forsey team up to astound the watch world at that year’s Baselworld watch fair with a tourbillon cheap replica watches uk of a type that no one had experienced before: it had two tourbillon cages, rotating at two speeds on two separate axes, with the inner cage set at an angle to the outer one. The groundbreaking timepiece, called the Double Tourbillon 30°, established the fledgling Greubel Forsey brand as an independent to be reckoned with.Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30 Vision

2007: Debut of the Double Tourbillon 30° “Secret” and Tourbillon 24 Secondes

Greubel Forsey created a more subdued version of its double tourbillon watch in 2006, eschewing the openworked dial that showed off the two tourbillons in favor of hiding them behind a more traditional dial, thus keeping the groundbreaking mechanism a “secret.” The other big debut that year was the first Greubel Forsey watch with only one tourbillon, the Greubel Tourbillon 24 Secondes. But the single tourbillon cage in that Swiss replica watches uk was far from traditional: it was not only inclined as in previous Greubel Forsey tourbillons, but was also superfast, making a complete rotation every 24 seconds.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30 Secret

Greubel Forsey Tourbillon 24 Secondes

2008: Greubel-Forsey doubles down with the first Quadruple Tourbillon à Differentiel

After five years of development, and after presenting a prototype model to the watch press in 2005, Greubel Forsey unveiled its second “fundamental invention,” the Quadruple Tourbillon à Differentiel. (The Double Tourbillon was the first and the Tourbillon 24 Secondes was the third.) The new replica watches sale includes a total of four tourbillons — two double tourbillons, to be exact, with the inner two inclined as in the Double Tourbillon. Also as in the Double Tourbillon, The cages rotate once per minute (inner) and every four minutes (outer); Greubel Forsey added a differential between the two tourbillons to distribute energy between them. A “secret” version of the Quadruple Tourbillon à Differentiel would soon follow.

Greubel Forsey Quadruple Tourbillon a Differentiel

Greubel Forsey Quadruple Tourbillon Secret

2009: Opening of the new ultra-modern Greubel Forsey manufacture outside La Chaux-de-Fonds

As part of its efforts to become a more streamlined manufacture, Greubel Forsey, which had been doing its manufacturing across eight workshops scattered throughout La Chaux-de-Fonds, consolidated and its operations into a new facility, consisting of an 18th-century farmhouse and a new, wedge-shaped building (below) in the Jura Mountains, made mostly of glass and equipped with eco-friendly features.

Greubel Forsey manufacture - exterior

2009: Greubel Forsey joins the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH)

Greubel Forsey’s association with the Richemont luxury group — which began when Richemont acquired a 20% share of the company in 2006 —  meant that it would leave behind the crowded halls of Baselworld and become one of the very select handful of watch brands that exhibit their wares at the other major Swiss fake watches for men fair, Geneva’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH), beginning in 2009. As many as 1,000 journalists visit Greubel Forsey’s luxurious, 240-square-meter booth each year.

Greubel Forsey SIHH booth

2010: Greubel Forsey’s Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique wins the Aiguille d’Or at the Geneva Grand Prix

Greubel Forsey walked away with top honors at the annual Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève — basically, the watch world’s Oscars — when its Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique was awarded the prestigious “Aiguille d’Or” (“golden hand”) for best Swiss replica watches in all categories. The Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Edition Historique, a limited edition of 11 pieces in rose gold and 11 pieces in platinum, boasts not only the inclined double tourbillon but curved plates on the dial and case sides with minuscule, intricately engraved text relating the brand’s history.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbilon 30 Edition Historique

2011: Opening of the Greubel Forsey Time Art Gallery in Shanghai

When Greubel Forsey decided to open its own gallery, it did so in a way that honored its founders’ concept of watchmaking as art. The Greubel Forsey Time Art Gallery, located at 18 Bund in Shanghai, is devoted to three themes: to exhibit and showcase the special attributes of the Greubel Forsey watch collection; to unveil collaborative pieces such as the Art Piece 1 (more on which below); and to exhibit significant men’s replica watches by other independent watchmakers who share Greubel Forsey’s vision of traditional watchmaking, such as Philippe Dufour (again, more below) and Vianney Halter.

Greubel Forsey Time Art Gallery

2011: The Double Tourbillon 30° Technique wins the International Chronometry Competition

Another evolution of the Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon garnered another coveted watch-industry honor in 2011. The Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon 30° Technique took first prize in the International Chronometry Competition, held at the Museum of Horology in Le Locle, Switzerland, which judges timepieces on their timekeeping precision. Scoring 915 points out of a possible 1,000, the Breitling replica watches sale triumphed in both the tourbillon category and the overall category, besting 17 other timepieces entered in the competition.

Greubel Forsey Double Tourbillon Technique

2012: Greubel Forsey launches the “Birth of a Watch” project with Philippe Dufour

Independent watchmaker Philippe Dufour, a name well known to watch connoisseurs, is participating in Greubel Forsey’s ambitious “Le Garde Temps, la Naissance d’une Montre,” project — a mission to preserve the knowledge and practice of traditional watchmaking practices that are in danger of being lost to industrialization. The project involves the creation of a new replica watches uk, from sketches to finished piece, using a blend of traditional and ancestral horological techniques, and recording it for posterity so the techniques may be preserved and passed on to a new generation of watchmakers. interested watch aficionados will be able to follow the creation of the watch, headed up by watchmaker Michel Boulanger, via a blog (at www.legardetemps-nm.org) with project updates and 3D films.

Watchmaker Michel Boulanger

2013: The Greubel Forsey Art Piece 1 debuts at SIHH

To create its first “Art Piece,” Greubel Forsey secured the talents of miniaturist sculptor Willard Wigan, who in the past has created sculptural works embedded in the eye of a needle and perched on the head of a pin. For Greubel Forsey’s Art Piece 1, which is also equipped with the 30° inclined double tourbillon, Wigan crafted an incredible micro-sculpture of a ship, positioned within the 2015 cheap replica watches UK interior and visible through a magnifying-glass crown at 9 o’clock. Very few editions of the Art Piece will be made, each with its own unique micro-sculpture and, as you’d expect, priced for maximum exclusivity, at over $1 million each.

Greubel Forsey Art Piece 1

Five Affordable Longines Watches for New Collectors

Longines represents an excellent entry point into the world of fine Swiss-made watches. During the brand’s 182-year history, it has served as an official Olympic timer, supplied timepieces to multiple expeditions and to the International Aviation Federation, won numerous Grand Prix competitions, and of course created the famous Lindberg Hour Angle pilots’ watch. Today, Longines offers a broad range of great-looking replica watches uk at attractive prices. Here are five we can recommend for new collectors.

Longines Conquest 24 Hours

The Longines Conquest line exemplifies the brand’s spirit for adventure. The Conquest 24 Hour combines the purposeful look of an explorer’s tool watch with an air of elegance that makes it appropriate for all occasions. The dial displays are crystal clear, and the 41-mm case strikes an excellent balance between oversize sports models and undersize dress best Swiss replica watches sale, making it a versatile companion. The crystal is sapphire with an anti-reflective coating. The screw-in crown contributes to the 50-meter water resistance rating. The bright red 24-hour hand lets the owner track a second time zone.

The Longines Conquest 24 Hours is priced at $1,600.

Longines Conquest 24 hours

Longines HydroConquest

With its 300 meter water resistance rating, the HydroConquest is no poseur. To our eyes, the red dial accents give this dive chronograph a strong sporting character. The case measures 41 mm x 15.7 mm, and it houses the mechanical, automatic winding caliber L688 column-wheel chronograph movement, developed exclusively for Longines by ETA. The subdials include a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock, a 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock, and small continuous seconds at 9 o’clock. The screw-down caseback, lateral crown protection and sapphire crystal offer protection from the elements, and the luminous hands and Arabic numerals let you read the time in all lighting conditions. Divers will appreciate the unidirectional bezel and double safety folding clasp.

The Longines HydroConquest chronograph retails for $2,325.

Longines HydroConquest

Longines Master Automatic Chronograph

For many collectors, when you ask them to think Longines, this is the look that comes to mind. The Master collection includes only mechanical cheap Breitling replica watches offering classic looks. The stainless steel case is classically sized at 38.5 mm, and the dial has a richly textured silver barleycorn finish – another nod to tradition. The dial sets off the blued steel hands to great effect. The movement is a Longines Caliber L651 with central chronograph seconds and a 30-minutes counter at 9 o’clock. The continuous small seconds are located at 9 o’clock. The movement can be viewed through a sapphire display back.

The Master Automatic Chronograph retails for $2,775.

Longines Master Automatic Chronograph

Longines Heritage 1973

The Heritage 1973 is one our favorite models from Longines. Some might call the look retro, but we prefer modern and timeless. The look is based on a new replica watches uk Longines produced during the 1970s, and to our eye, the design has aged very well. This is not a cookie-cutter watch, but one with flair and individuality. It just works.

The 40-mm cushion case secures a movement to be proud of – an L688 Longines column-wheel chronograph. The column wheel controls the start, stop and reset actions, and it is an expensive construction found in the finest chronographs. This movement is manufactured by ETA exclusively for Longines. A clear sapphire caseback lets you view the chronograph mechanism, with its blued column wheel, in action.

We also like the subdial presentation. At first glance, the twin black registers give the Swiss replica watches uk a bi-compax look, but then you notice the white 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock. The blue tachymeter scale that circles the outer edge of the dial adds just a hint of color. The dial is very well balanced with a clarity that gives it a purposeful look.

The Longines Heritage 1973 is priced at $3,275.

Longines Heritage 1973

Avigation Oversize Crown

Longine’s history is rich with aviation achievements, the aforementioned Lindberg Hour Angle being but one example. The Avigation Oversize Crown chronograph design is based on a fake watches uk Longines produced during the 1920s. Unlike many modern pilots’ watches that are too large to wear comfortably, this model measures 41 mm in diameter, meaning you can wear it anywhere. But it is no shrinking violet. The bold design makes a strong statement on the wrist.

Pilots’ fashion replica watches uk are all about legibility, and this piece offers it in abundance. Its black dial, white numerals and gold-plated, luminous, pear-shaped hands are extremely easy to read. The bezel is marked with a single white, triangular index that can be rotated in either direction, allowing pilots to set chronographic reference points. The fluted finish on the bezel and crown carry over from the early days of aviation, when cockpits were not heated. The size and texture allow the bezel and crown to be easily manipulated, even when wearing thick leather gloves.

We like the bi-compax chronograph layout, and together with the large date display at 6 o’clock, the dial is very well balanced. The main attraction lies behind the dial – a monopusher, column-wheel chronograph movement. These are quite rare, and typically found in best luxury replica watches uk with five-figure prices. Indeed, some people may experience a moment of confusion upon noticing chronograph subdials but no pushers. In this case, the oversize crown doubles as the chronograph push piece, controlling the start, stop, and rest functions, which is why the crown is set away from the case. And as noted, there’s a column wheel to boot, all visible through a sapphire display back.

At $3,500, the Avigation Oversize Crown chronograph is the most expensive piece we’ve selected, but it nonetheless represents outstanding value.

Longines Avignation Oversize Crown

Chronograph History Lives in the Breitling Transocean Chronograph 1915

Breitling replica watches is an important name in the history of the chronograph, and now the brand is marking that role with a limited-edition version of the Transocean. The new Breitling Transocean Chronograph 1915 marks the 100th anniversary of a major design innovation that we too often take for granted on contemporary chronographs.

When you think of a chronograph today, one of the first images in your head is probably the two pushers on the side of the case at 2 and 4 o’clock. But timers had to go a long way before this design became standard. It was a matter of many separate inventions, developed in sequence over decades. In the early 20th century, a chronograph had a completely different appearance. At the time, all chronographs were monopushers, with the controls for starting, stopping, and returning the timer to zero all placed in the crown.

Breitling Transocean Chronograph 1915_Dial and Historic Piece 560

Breitling was one of the first companies to break free of this paradigm and to kickstart the evolution of the modern chronograph. In 1915, Gaston Breitling, son of founder Léon Breitling, designed a timing Swiss replica watches uk with a separate pusher to control the start, stop and reset functions. He placed it on the side of the case at 2 o’clock, just above the crown. The 2 o’clock positioning would soon become standard, as it is easy to reach and control on the wrist. (With wristwatches only just coming into vogue during World War I, the 3 o’clock position of the crown was still a new idea, too.) It wasn’t until 1923 that Breitling would separate the zero-reset button from the start/stop pusher, thus allowing for timing individual events without resetting the chronograph. But the advent of a monopusher distinct from the crown made a world of difference.

Breitling Transocean Chronograph 1915 Dial CU 560

The new Transocean Chronograph 1915 plays off of these roots, updating them for a dial and case design in keeping with the Transocean collection. An angled pusher sits at 2 o’clock, above the fluted crown. The silvered dial has a bicompax display: a small-seconds subdial is at 9 o’clock and a 30-minute counter at 3 o’clock. The hands and Arabic numerals have luminous coating. A date window can be found at 6 o’clock.

Whereas Transocean cheap replica watches for sale usually have the Breitling 01 automatic movement, the Transocean Chronograph 1915 uses a new manufacture movement. Chronometer-certified by COSC, Caliber B14 is a hand-wound movement running in 33 jewels. It has a 70-hour power reserve. Thanks to a frequency of 28,800 vph, the chronograph can time events up to a 1/4 of a second. The seconds scale around the dial is graduated to divide up the minute into 240 parts. Caliber B14 has a double column-wheel construction, arranged in two tiers.

Breitling Transocean Chronograph 1915 Soldier Bracelet 560

The best replica watches uk has a stainless-steel case with a diameter of 43 mm. The dial is covered by a sapphire crystal with nonreflective coating. The caseback also is made of sapphire to reveal the movement; it also shows an engraving to mark the occasion: “100e anniversaire 1915-2015.”

The 2015 Cheap Replica Watches UK comes on a crocodile strap or on the Ocean Classic steel-mesh bracelet. It is water resistant to 100 meters. Appropriately for the anniversary, Breitling is manufacturing 1,915 pieces of the Transocean Chronograph 1915.

Breitling Transocean Chrono 1915 angle 560