Showing posts with label Thin Profile Watch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thin Profile Watch. Show all posts

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Is Thinner the better?




Royal Oak 1972 Jumbo 39mm Calibre 2121 Taken By HTC One
Since the time we had pocket watch, Swiss watch makers were doing their best to design a thinner watch to show off their technology and skill of watch-making. Gradually when wrist watch is replacing Pocket watch, this game of going thinner had been started already!!
Until the year I was borne, 1957, Piaget created the 2mm thick hand wind movement 9P. more and more watcher is going for thinner, Vacheron Constantin, Universal, JLC.
Ultimately with lot of works and experiment, Piaget invented another 2.3mm Automatic Watch movement 12P.
Then a new company Jean Lassale which was established in 1976 successfully made a thin movement to a merely thickness of about 1.2 mm. Jean Lassale created the world record of super thin Calibre 1200 in 1976 and then the automatic Calibre 2000 one year after.

Thin watch is an equivalent of better quality watch was the mindset of most of collector or connosieuer for watch. As no other small company could beat this with launch of thinner watch. So  the big player like VC, PP, Piaget kept making thin watch with 35mm dia. to satisfy the world…

1990, Panerai  swiped the market with a new wave of  “New”, “Large” and “Expensive” to bring us enter to this Happy Land of Dinosaurs, till 15 Sept 2008, Lehman Brothers went bankruptcy,… this episode carried the label of big watch back to stone age. Watch makers then issue watches with Standard, Low profile, Complicated and Traditional watch still able to take major portion of the market share. Till 2010.  Piaget perfect with an new 1208P which was modified base on the blue print of 12P, to continue the legend of a thin watch, immediately made me recalled those name of thin watch; LeCoultre, Frederic Piguet, Lemania..etc

Thinner is better but tougher, in order to maintain the accurate time keeping, thinner watch has no room for you to play around. A small second point hand wind watch may require same or even more effort to build an automatic watch that come with date! As most of the time is required to fine tune the 5 Positions precision , some times it may re-setup again and again!

Time seems has stopped by AP since 1972, as after 40th anniversary, AP Royal Oak 39mm super thin watch still maintaining the use of 2122 movement, that has been used since 1972,  the watch has a thickness is 3.05 mm, Same movement are also being deployed by PP and VC on their watches.

This is one of the reason that man people is searching for the early AP RO using 2121 movement, and that watch has been the hot item in recent auctions.

HK Snob

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Piaget and Verachon Constantin Thin Watches

Super thin watch is hard to build, though there is no complicated function, since 1960, I started to appreciate thin watch as my father tough me the difficulties in making thin watch.


Nowadays, the watch are huge and thick, I really do not appreciate them.. If the watch trend is big, OK we can make it big, but Do not make it so thick, as this is too easy to make…

SIHH 2020 watch show is ready and we can see Piaget and Vacheron Constantin are preparing some of the simple but ultra thin watch to be displayed.

Piaget has been using painstaking effort in making thin watch since 1957. the 2 mm thick 9P hand wind watch shocked the world, after two years, the Automatic version 12P was official launched in 1960. That was the world record for Automatic watch of 2 mm thickness!

2010, Piaget celebrates his thin watch that has been built for 50 years, they created the 1208P

which is a 2.35 mm automatic watch with 48 hours power reserve , it is the world’s thinnest watch!

This design come with the Antiplano series, 43mm dia. Total thickness is 5.25 mm. World Thinnest Automatic watch with the second hand being located at the 4 o’clock position. Elegancy, thin and beautiful!

Another Watch masterpiece VC, Verachon Constantin builds two watches Historique 1955 and 1968, which was the classic of 50’s and 60’s as for their thin profile and precision.

Historque 1955 fit with a 1003 hand wind caliber which is the World thinnest hand wind watch, Geneve seal, classic circle dial with 18CT gold. Historque 1968 is a classic square adopting 1120 Calibre with a new rotor, Geneve Seal. Since it is not as easy as you can think to design and fabricate thin watch, These two greatest watches might create some of the new trend of watch fashion. Large, thin, simple and classic...








HK Snob

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Cartier Ronde



Manufacturer: Cartier
Model Name: Ronde
Model Number: Model CRWY1527951
Gender: Mens
Movement: Manual Winding
Movement Details: Limited Edition of 1000 Individually Numbered Pieces
Case: 18k Rose Gold round style Cartier case with exposition back to view movement (35mm dia.). Water-Resistant to 30 meters / 100 Feet
Dial: Off-White (cream) Dial with black Roman numerals
Strap Band: Strap band with 18k Rose Gold Cartier Rose Gold deployant clasp
Condition: Pre Owned
Watch Category: Contemporary
Additional Information: Cartier special polished wood jewelry style box with special wood eye loop and booklet included
Retail/Replacement Price: $100,800.00

HK Snob