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Author: Gabby

  • MING’s 37.06 Royal Selangor Pairs a Hand-Hammered Pewter Dial With Malaysian Craftsmanship

    MING’s 37.06 Royal Selangor Pairs a Hand-Hammered Pewter Dial With Malaysian Craftsmanship

    DROP

    MING's 37.06 Royal Selangor Pairs a Hand-Hammered Pewter Dial With Malaysian Craftsmanship

    A Malaysian watchmaker teams up with a local pewter artisan for a dial unlike any other under sapphire.

    MING (Horologer MING) 37.06 Royal Selangor

    Image: MING

    On 30 July, MING unveiled the 37.06 Royal Selangor, a limited edition with a hand-hammered pewter dial crafted by Royal Selangor, the Malaysian pewter house that lends the watch its name. The case is grade-2 titanium, 38mm wide, 11.05mm thick, with a 44.73mm lug-to-lug measurement, fully brushed and rated to 100 meters. Both brands’ wordmarks are engraved on the back, and the specifications are listed on MING’s product page. At 35.9 grams, it’s light enough to forget it’s on the wrist.

    Pewter, a tin-based alloy, is more common in decorative objects than watch dials. As WatchTime noted at launch, the hammered pewter dial is a rarity, and possibly a first, for a watch brand. Each dial is hand-hammered, so no two reflect light identically.

    MING’s usual layering does the rest of the work. The indexes are engraved into the domed front sapphire and filled with Super-LumiNova X1, so they sit above the hammered surface rather than on it. Both crystals get double-sided anti-reflective coating. Inside is a Sellita SW300.M1 in a MING-specific execution, hours and minutes only, roughly 50 hours of reserve, with skeletonized rhodium-plated bridges over an anthracite-coated baseplate.

    Eighty-eight pieces at CHF 5,000 before taxes, as Revolution reported, which also notes the full run is assembled in Kuala Lumpur. Royal Selangor boutiques had them first; limited stock reaches ming.watch from 6 August.

    The draw here is provenance rather than complication: a watch brand working with a craft house from the city it comes from.

    Reference37.06 (no separate reference code found beyond model designation; unknown if a distinct catalogue number exists)
    PriceCHF 5,000, excluding taxes
    ReleasedAnnounced 30 July 2026. Available through Royal Selangor boutiques starting 30 July 2026; limited stock follows on MING’s own website from 6 August 2026
    Specs– Case: grade-2 titanium, 38mm diameter, 11.05mm thick, 44.73mm lug-to-lug, 35.9g, all-brushed finish, 20mm lug width, caseback engraved with MING and Royal Selangor wordmarks

    Source: MING · first spotted via revolutionwatch.com

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • The Watchmakers of Taiwan

    The Watchmakers of Taiwan

    WATCHES BY THE COUNTRY

    The Watchmakers of Taiwan

    Where century-old shopfronts and crowdfunded upstarts share the same island for time.

    Elegantsis watch

    Image: Elegantsis

    Taiwan’s horological story is not one of centuries-old manufactures tucked into alpine valleys. It is a story of retail energy, enthusiast passion, and a scrappy new generation of independents. On this island, established watch retailers that have counted the decades sit comfortably beside young designers experimenting with vintage components, field-watch heritage, and modern craft. Taipei’s boutique scene keeps expanding, with dedicated concepts devoted to independent watchmaking that mirror a rising local appetite for both the great Swiss houses and homegrown small-batch labels.

    What emerges is a distinct Taiwanese character: pragmatic, design-forward, and unafraid to reinterpret the past. The country’s makers tend to build around function first, whether that means a rugged field watch or a small run of carefully finished mechanicals sold straight to the people who love them. Below are three names that capture that spirit, from a long-running national favorite to boutique operations that treat every batch as a personal project.

    The Makers

    Elegantsis

    Founded in 1999, Elegantsis is one of Taiwan’s most enduring independent watch brands and a familiar name to local collectors. Its catalog runs the full range, from quartz pieces to mechanical models, with a recognizable streak of military and field-watch influence throughout the lineup. For anyone tracing the roots of a homegrown Taiwanese watch identity, Elegantsis is a logical starting point: a brand that has been quietly building its own story for more than two decades. It presents itself proudly as a Taiwan watch maker, and its longevity speaks to a steady following on the island.

    Havaan Tuvali

    Based in Tainan and founded by Eric Yeh, Havaan Tuvali represents the artisanal end of Taiwan’s microbrand movement. The brand is known for small-batch watches that blend vintage parts with hand work and contemporary dial designs, an approach that has drawn attention beyond the island. As Forbes noted in its profile of the maker, Havaan Tuvali’s method is deliberately unconventional, prizing character over volume. It is the kind of operation where the personality of the founder shows up on the wrist, and where scarcity is a feature rather than a marketing tactic.

    Selten Watch Company watch

    Image: Selten

    Selten Watch Company

    Founded in 2017 by Leonardo Tsai, Selten Watch Company is a Taiwan-based independent that sells original mechanical watches directly to enthusiasts. Selten has used crowdfunding to bring its models to an international audience, a route that has become a signature of the modern microbrand era and one that lets a small team reach collectors far from Taipei. Tsai comes from a family with a horological background, which lends the brand a sense of continuity even as it operates with a clean, contemporary aesthetic. It is a good example of how a young Taiwanese label can punch above its size by going straight to the people who care most.

    Taiwan may not carry the manufacturing legacy of Switzerland or Japan, but it offers something arguably more contemporary: a culture where retail passion and independent creativity feed each other. From Elegantsis and its long national run to the artisanal batches of Havaan Tuvali and the crowdfunded ambition of Selten, the island proves that a horological identity can be built in the present tense. Keep an eye on Taipei. The next chapter is being written in its boutiques right now.

    Where to Find Them

    Elegantsis — elegantsis.com
    Havaan Tuvali — havaantuvali.com
    Selten Watch Company — seltenwatch.com

    Until the next country, keep watching.

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • Hublot Turns Back to 2005 With the Big Bang Original Unico

    Hublot Turns Back to 2005 With the Big Bang Original Unico

    NEW RELEASE

    Hublot Turns Back to 2005 With the Big Bang Original Unico

    At LVMH Watch Week 2026, Hublot revisits the watch that defined its modern identity, now pairing the original Big Bang design language with the brand’s in-house Unico chronograph movement.

    Hublot Turns Back to 2005 With the Big Bang Original Unico

    Source: Hublot

    According to Hublot’s release, the Big Bang Original Unico debuted at LVMH Watch Week 2026 in Milan, reviving the look of the 2005 Big Bang while updating it with the brand’s in-house Unico movement architecture. [Launch details and exact event phrasing should be confirmed against Hublot’s release page.] The 2005 original was more than a successful model. It locked in Hublot’s modern formula—layered case construction, exposed screws, bold bezel geometry, and the “fusion” of precious metals with rubber—and helped make material contrast central to luxury sports watch design.

    “The point of the early Big Bang was not restraint. It was contrast, made visible in every surface and every material choice.”

    Pairing “Original” with “Unico” bridges two eras of the company. The early Big Bang family relied on outsourced chronograph bases; Unico has come to signify Hublot’s manufacture chronograph platform. The design that made the brand’s name now carries the movement family that supports its claim to in-house watchmaking.

    There is a broader industry angle, too. In a field that trades on 19th century origin stories, Hublot’s key heritage object comes from the mid 2000s. A launch at LVMH Watch Week presents the watch that once felt confrontational as house history—not antique romance, but the canonization of a very contemporary icon.

    WATCH SPECIFICATIONS

    Brand Hublot
    Model Big Bang Original Unico
    Reference Needs verification
    Case Size Needs verification, likely 42 mm to 44 mm based on current Unico architecture
    Case Material Needs verification, commonly titanium, ceramic, King Gold, or mixed materials
    Dial Color Openworked / skeletonized display, needs verification
    Movement Hublot Unico automatic chronograph, exact caliber needs verification, plausibly HUB1280 or related Unico family
    Power Reserve Needs verification, many current Unico calibers are around 72 hours
    Water Resistance Needs verification, often 100 m on Big Bang chronograph references
    Approximate Market Price Needs verification, likely in line with contemporary Big Bang Unico pricing depending on material

    Heritage

    The Big Bang’s roots reach back to Hublot’s founding proposition of 1980: a gold case on a rubber strap. The 2005 watch amplified that idea into something architectural and aggressive, arriving just as the luxury sports watch category was ready to get louder. Love it or hate it, it was difficult to mistake for anything else.

    The Unico caliber belongs to Hublot’s next phase, when the brand built manufacturing credibility through proprietary movement development. This watch combines the two narratives: the Big Bang as cultural object, Unico as industrial statement. [Exact historical sequencing and caliber usage by line should be confirmed against Hublot’s official material.]

    Why This Watch on This Wrist

    The wrist in question is Hublot’s own. The Big Bang Original Unico is a self-portrait: the design that made the brand impossible to ignore, fitted with the movement family that helped it argue it was more than styling and marketing. Provocation on the outside, legitimacy on the inside—if one watch explains Hublot’s journey from disruptor to establishment player, this is a persuasive candidate.

    For collectors, the appeal is narrower but clearer than a generic anniversary piece: this is a watch for someone who sees the mid 2000s as real watch history, offered a more technically self-sufficient version of a period-defining design.

  • Santurce Collection Brings Puerto Rican Identity to the Modern Dive Watch

    Santurce Collection Brings Puerto Rican Identity to the Modern Dive Watch

    MICROBRAND

    Santurce Collection Brings Puerto Rican Identity to the Modern Dive Watch

    Founded in 2025 by a husband-and-wife team of collectors, this Puerto Rican microbrand backs its island identity with serious spec: twin 39mm Sellita divers, an artist-drawn caseback, and a GPHG nod in year one.

    The barracuda is a patient fish. It lurks in Puerto Rico’s warm shallows, silver and motionless, until it isn’t. Locals call it the picúa — and it is one of two Caribbean predators lending their names to the dive watches of Santurce Collection, a young microbrand out to put Puerto Rico on the horological map.

    The Joke That Became a Brand

    Santurce Collection is run by José and Anita Salas, a husband-and-wife team from the San Juan district that gives the brand its name. Both are lawyers, longtime collectors, and founders of Puerto Rico’s RedBar chapter. The name predates the company: when Anita asked for more closet space, José began selling watches from his own collection at friend prices, and local collectors took to calling any well-curated watch at a good price a “#SanturceCollection.”

    In 2025, the inside joke became a company with a mission: watches designed in Puerto Rico, with an identity of their own. The brand is rooted in place first, product second — and it shows.

    Two Divers, One Platform

    Santurce Collection Picúa dive watch

    Image: Time+Tide

    The brand’s fully custom line consists of two 39mm divers: El Tiburón (“the shark”) and the Picúa. They share a platform — a forged, heat-treated 316L steel case measuring 12.2mm thick and 46mm lug-to-lug, a 120-click bezel with DLC-coated steel insert, sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating on both sides, 300 meters of water resistance, and Sellita’s SW200-B automatic, ordered without a phantom date position. Design happens in Puerto Rico, assembly in the USA. Each is priced at $949.

    The two wear their names differently. El Tiburón’s sandblasted matte case echoes the grey of a shark’s skin; the Picúa pairs linear brushing with a black sunburst dial, rectangular markers, and red accents straight out of the 1970s skin-diver playbook.

    The caliber choice tells you something about how the founders think. The SW200-B is unglamorous and everywhere, and that is precisely the argument for it. Parts exist. Watchmakers know it cold. A brand this young cannot promise it will be around in fifteen years, but it can pick a movement that will be serviceable whether or not it is.

    Flip either watch over and the cultural argument gets literal: the caseback carries “El Jíbaro Buzo,” an engraving that reimagines Puerto Rico’s traditional jíbaro figure as a diver — drawn by co-founder Anita herself.

    Recognition, Fast

    The spec-per-dollar story has already drawn notice beyond the enthusiast forums. El Tiburón has been selected as an official competitor at the 2026 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, as Time+Tide reports — rare air for a brand in its first full year. The Picúa’s initial run sold out, with more stock expected; El Tiburón remains available in limited numbers. For hands-on impressions of both, see Ariel Adams’s review at aBlogtoWatch.

    Plenty of watches borrow a sense of place. Fewer are built by people who never had to look one up.

    Visit Santurce Collection →

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • Beaubleu Paris Sets Out What a 5 ATM Marking Really Covers

    Beaubleu Paris Sets Out What a 5 ATM Marking Really Covers

    FACT OF THE DAY

    Beaubleu Paris Sets Out What a 5 ATM Marking Really Covers

    The French independent's explainer treats the stamp on your dress watch as a lab result, not a depth gauge.

    Beaubleu Paris Sets Out What a 5 ATM Marking Really Covers

    The French independent Beaubleu Paris has published a guide to the 5 ATM stamp found on countless dress watches and everyday three-handers.

    The rating reflects a lab test under ISO 22810: a new watch, held still, subjected to the pressure of a 50 metre water column. Swimming strokes generate dynamic pressure the test never measures.

    Rain, splashes, and handwashing are safe. Long swims, hot showers, saunas, and steam rooms are not. Diving calls for 20 ATM or more.

    Gaskets age, so Beaubleu recommends a check every two to three years, or after a shock. In its words, “a crown poorly repositioned after adjusting the time is enough to nullify all water resistance.”

    Source: Beaubleu Paris

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • IWC Posts a Bench Film of Watchmaker Florian Salzer Building the Ingenieur Automatic 40

    NEW VIDEO

    IWC Posts a Bench Film of Watchmaker Florian Salzer Building the Ingenieur Automatic 40

    A quiet look at how the in-house Caliber 32111 comes together, one component at a time.

    The film IWC posted on July 28, 2026 is quiet: no drama, just the appeal. Florian Salzer assembles the blue-dial IW328907 step by step, from the bare movement plate to the last of the five bezel screws, a detail IWC credits to Gérald Genta.

    The winding assembly deserves a closer look. Instead of a reversing wheel train, the 32111 relies on pawl winding: small pivoting fingers that convert bidirectional rotor swings into unidirectional winding for a single barrel. The movement’s power reserve, per IWC, is 120 hours.

    Also per that description: soft-iron inner case, integrated bracelet.

    Source: YouTube

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • Worn & Wound Acquires Lorier, Keeping Lorenzo Ortega as Creative Director

    Worn & Wound Acquires Lorier, Keeping Lorenzo Ortega as Creative Director

    WATCH STORY

    Worn & Wound Acquires Lorier, Keeping Lorenzo Ortega as Creative Director

    A week after the announcement, the clearest signal for Neptune and Falcon owners is who's still in charge.

    Some watches get passed around a collectors’ dinner without ceremony. A Neptune gets unbuckled, passed left, and makes the full circuit before returning. No one needs the elevator pitch. That’s what Lorier built: a brand people already trust.

    The late-July news deserves a pause, not just a skim. Worn & Wound, the watch-media outlet, has acquired Lorier. Microbrand Watch World reported the deal on July 21, citing an announcement published by Worn & Wound itself.

    What the sources confirm

    Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega, Lorier’s founders, aren’t walking away. Both remain partial owners of the business, and Lorenzo is staying on as Creative Director, keeping creative stewardship of the watches.

    Two sources confirm this. Unpolished Watches reported on July 24 that the Ortegas retained partial ownership, with Lorenzo staying on as Creative Director. It also noted the sale leaked in June before the official July announcement.

    Worn & Wound has since run a piece on the relaunch of four classic Lorier models, the Neptune, Hyperion, Astra and Falcon, carrying an editor’s note that states plainly that Lorier is owned by Worn & Wound. That disclosure line is a small thing that matters, and it is the right instinct.

    What the sources do not say is nearly as important. Financial terms are undisclosed. The operational structure after the deal is not detailed. Whether anything changes at the customer level, pricing, lead times, warranty handling, is an open question that Microbrand Watch World flags as unanswered and that no other source in this set closes.

    Worn & Wound’s own framing, relayed through Microbrand Watch World, is that the deal will “unlock Lorier’s full potential.” That is company language about its own transaction, and it deserves to be read as such rather than as a finding. Nothing in the available reporting suggests distress or difficulty on Lorier’s part.

    Why the shape of it is interesting

    A media outlet buying a brand it has covered is unusual in this corner of the industry. It puts two things in the same house that enthusiasts have generally preferred to keep separate, and the honest version of the story is that we do not yet know how that will read six months from now. The disclosure note is a good start. Consistency will be the test.

    For the person who owns a Falcon, though, the practical answer is simpler. Design voice in a small brand tends to live in one or two people, and one of those people is still in the chair with the title that governs what the watches look like. That is the strongest available signal that the vintage-informed line of thinking behind these watches continues.

    Microbrands have not had many routes out of founder-run operation that do not involve either a private equity spreadsheet or quietly stopping. This is a third shape. Whether it becomes a path others take will depend less on the announcement and more on what the next Neptune looks like when it arrives.

    Source: Microbrandwatchworld

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • Audemars Piguet and Swatch Launch Royal Pop, a Collection of Eight Bioceramic Pocket Watches

    Audemars Piguet and Swatch Launch Royal Pop, a Collection of Eight Bioceramic Pocket Watches

    DROP

    Audemars Piguet and Swatch Launch Royal Pop, a Collection of Eight Bioceramic Pocket Watches

    A Le Brassus independent and Biel's plastic-watch giant share a dial, with the result hanging from a lanyard instead of a wrist.

    Audemars Piguet and Swatch have announced Royal Pop, a collection of eight pocket watches that runs Royal Oak design codes through a Pop Art filter. AP’s news release, dated 13 May 2026, outlines the collaboration.

    The unusual part? The corporate geometry. AP is privately held by the Audemars, Piguet and Wiederrecht families, and sits outside Swatch Group. Swatch has a reputation for collaborations (MoonSwatch with Omega, Scuba Fifty Fathoms with Blancpain), but partnering with an independent haute horlogerie house, meaning the top tier of finely finished mechanical watchmaking, is new.

    The Royal Oak translation is instant. The eight-sided bezel is there, screws and all, and the dial wears the Petite Tapisserie pattern, the small waffle texture the originals made famous, here rendered in Swatch’s bioceramic rather than steel. Glazing on both sides of the case puts the movement on display: a hand-wound version of Swatch’s SISTEM51 carrying a Nivachron balance spring for magnetic resistance, a power reserve past 90 hours, and 15 patents. In place of a strap, a stitched calfskin cord lets each piece hang from the neck, ride in a pocket, or clip onto a bag.

    The format matters. Moving those signatures off the wrist lets AP play without touching the Royal Oak itself.

    AP will direct proceeds toward preserving watchmaking savoir-faire and supporting emerging talent. CEO Ilaria Resta described the aim as inviting “a broader audience including the younger generations to experience mechanical watchmaking differently.”

    Sales run through select Swatch stores only. No price appears on AP’s page, and case dimensions and water resistance are not stated. Vogue reports sales opened 16 May amid heavy queues, which neither brand’s own page confirms.

    ReleasedAs stated on AP’s page, the news was published 13 May 2026.
    SpecsBioceramic case glazed with sapphire on both sides; Royal Oak cues carried over (eight-sided bezel, visible hex screws, Petite Tapisserie dial pattern); satin-brushed surfaces; Super-LumiNova Grade A lume. Case dimensions not stated.

    Source: Audemars Piguet

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • Henry Archer Unveils the Vesterhav 38 West Amber RG

    NEW VIDEO

    Henry Archer Unveils the Vesterhav 38 West Amber RG

    Henry Archer puts the spotlight on its Vesterhav 38, this time dressed in a West Amber dial with rose gold accents. The video walks through the case, dial finish, and overall proportions of this coastal-inspired diver, giving a close look at what sets the new colorway apart.

    Why this watch, on this wrist?

  • Selten Watch Company

    Selten Watch Company

    MICROBRAND

    Selten Watch Company

    An independent microbrand using meteorite, bronze, and enamel to punch far above its price class.

    Selten Grand Feu Enamel — Spiral, Golden Fall

    Image: Selten

    Selten Watch Company makes more sense once you understand the name. “Selten” is German for “rare,” and rarity is the point. Instead of the usual microbrand path of sporty homages and familiar case shapes, Selten has built its identity around unusual dial work and craft led finishing.

    Origin

    Selten was founded in 2021 by Leonardo Tsai, who comes from a Hong Kong family of watch dial makers and left a finance career at JP Morgan to start the brand. It shows: this is a company that leads with the dial first, then builds the rest of the watch around it. Early releases leaned into materials still uncommon at this end of the market — meteorite dials, hand patinated bronze — living up to the slogan “A Rare Kind, Not a Stereotype.”

    What Makes It Notable

    The intent is to bring techniques and materials usually associated with far more expensive watches into a direct to consumer price bracket. In Mike Razak’s hands on review for aBlogtoWatch, he recalls collectors wearing Pateks and Journes assuming the debut Series 00 cost thousands rather than its $750 MSRP. Selten’s newer work goes further still, especially in enamel.

    Signature

    The standout is the Grand Feu Enamel series, the opener of Selten’s Métiers d’Art collection. Per aBlogtoWatch’s review, the 39mm stainless steel case is 10.9mm thick with a 45.5mm lug to lug, a lightly domed sapphire crystal, and 50 meters of water resistance — strong everyday dimensions for a watch that reads as dressy. Details like a polished concave bezel, a brushed mid case, and two spring bar positions to keep straps from rubbing show real thought.

    The dial is the main event. Each starts with a hand engraved pattern — 700 individually cut lines, not machine turned guilloché — finished in grand feu enamel, offered in spiral or radial patterns and five colorways: Rustique red, Sunbird blue, Prism violet, Moonstone light blue, and Golden Fall gold. Launch pricing was $1,899 for the radial dial and $2,199 for the spiral; made to order versions now run $2,599 and $2,899, with a bracelet at $80, or $150 with an extension clasp. That is a higher bracket than entry level microbrands, but well below the usual territory for hand worked enamel dials.

    Official Website

    Selten sells direct through its official website — the best place for the current catalog, availability, and specifications. For an independent third party look at the Grand Feu Enamel, see Mike Razak’s review at aBlogtoWatch.

    Visit Selten Watch Company →

    Why this watch, on this wrist?