2 October

The day in brief

Porsche Design and Hodinkee have unveiled the Chronograph 1 Utility, a titanium chronograph limited to 350 pieces that introduces the WERK 01.340 calibre and brings back the central minute counter associated with the Lemania 5100.

Parmigiani Fleurier has added a platinum Petite Seconde with a Morning Blue dial to the Toric line, making its debut at Milano Watch Week. Norqain brings titanium to the Wild One case for the first time, Christopher Ward marks 15 years of its jumping-hour module, and Hamilton launches a hand-wound cushion-cased family. Independent brand Lorige builds a case from the brake pads of a Le Mans-winning LMP2 car, and New York hosts two auctions worth following in October, from Antiquorum and Phillips.

Porsche Design and Hodinkee bring back the central minute counter

Presented on 1 October, the Chronograph 1 Utility – Limited Edition for Hodinkee is the second of three watches planned in the collaboration between the brand and the American publication. The case is uncoated, bead-blasted titanium, 40.8 mm in diameter and 15.41 mm thick, water-resistant to 10 bar. The reference is 6041.6.02.001.12.2.

The news is in the movement. The WERK 01.340 is an automatic calibre measuring 30 mm across and 8.5 mm high, with 30 jewels, 28,800 vibrations per hour and around 60 hours of power reserve, COSC-certified. According to journalist Gisbert L. Brunner, it was developed with Swiss specialist Concepto, like the earlier WERK 01.140 and 01.240.

What sets it apart is the layout of the indications. In a conventional chronograph, elapsed minutes are read on a small 30-minute counter. Here the chronograph minute hand sits at the centre, stacked with the seconds hand, and sweeps the main dial scale over a full hour. It is read like ordinary hours and minutes, with no need to add up laps of a sub-dial, which explains why military chronographs favoured this solution.

The position the 30-minute counter would occupy, at 12 o'clock, goes to a 24-hour indication. The 12-hour counter is at 6, small seconds at 9, and day and date at 3. This is the layout of the Lemania 5100, the calibre that powered the military versions of the Chronograph 1 in the 1970s and 1980s and whose production ended some two decades ago. The trade-off is familiar: stacking four hands at the centre demands height, and the watch is not thin.

There are 350 pieces, 100 of them reserved for Hodinkee, priced at 8,950 euros or 9,650 US dollars, with a titanium bracelet and an additional leather strap. Sales opened on 1 October.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Parmigiani Fleurier dresses the Toric in platinum and blue

Parmigiani Fleurier announced the Toric Petite Seconde Platinum Morning Blue on 1 October; according to the Italian press it makes its debut at Milano Watch Week, running from today until Sunday. The case is 950 platinum, 40.6 mm in diameter and 8.8 mm thick, water-resistant to 30 metres.

The dial is 18-carat white gold, entirely hand-grained. The brand recalls that Michel Parmigiani came across this old technique in his work as a restorer and taught it to the house's dial-makers. Because the grain is the result of a manual gesture, each dial reflects light slightly differently.

Inside is the hand-wound calibre PF780, built in 18-carat rose gold: 157 components, 27 jewels, 3.15 mm thick, 4 Hz and a 60-hour power reserve delivered by two barrels. Gold is softer and harder to work than the usual brass, and it is that difficulty, more than any functional gain, that justifies the choice in a dress watch.

The Toric collection was born in 1996, with the brand itself. This version is not limited and costs 56,500 Swiss francs.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Norqain brings titanium to the Wild One

The Wild One case is made of several parts: an outer structure, a rubber shock absorber and an inner container that holds the movement. Until now the structure was made of Norteq, the brand's carbon composite. In the three models presented on 1 October, the top plate is now grade 5 titanium, while the back plate remains black Norteq. Norqain quotes roughly 45 per cent less weight than steel.

Two models are skeletonised and use the manufacture calibre NK26/1, with a 65-hour power reserve: one measuring 39 mm by 11.75 mm, limited to 400 pieces, and another measuring 42 mm by 12.3 mm with mint-green accents. The third, also 42 mm, has a dial of iron meteorite found in northern Sweden and the calibre NN20/1, produced by Kenissi, with 70 hours.

All are COSC-certified, run at 28,800 vibrations per hour and are water-resistant to 200 metres. On the brand's website, prices start at 5,550 Swiss francs for the skeleton models and 5,950 francs for the meteorite.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Christopher Ward marks 15 years of jumping hours

The C1 Jump Hour XV marks 15 years of the JJ01, the jumping-hour module Christopher Ward developed and first used in 2011. There are 300 pieces, in a steel case 39 mm in diameter and 13.10 mm high, water-resistant to 30 metres.

In a jumping-hour watch, the hour appears on a disc that should advance in a single step. The difficulty lies in the timing of the jump: if the disc is dragged round gradually, it changes before or after the minute hand reaches 60. The JJ01, mounted on a Sellita SW200-1, stores energy throughout the hour and releases it all at once, so that the disc jumps as the hand crosses the hour.

The dial is silver, with a stamped guilloché pattern. The movement runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour and has around 38 hours of power reserve. The price is 2,350 euros on a leather strap and 2,540 euros on a steel bracelet.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Hamilton revives the cushion case with a hand-wound movement

On 1 October Hamilton launched the American Classic Cushion, inspired by the cushion-cased models the brand produced in the mid-1920s. There are six references in two sizes, 30 by 30 mm and 34 by 34 mm, both 8.1 mm thick, in steel or yellow-gold PVD steel, water-resistant to 50 metres.

The slim profile is down to the hand-wound H-42, derived from the ETA 7001, a thin calibre with small seconds at 6 o'clock that dates back to the 1970s. Hamilton fits it with a Nivachron balance spring, a titanium-based alloy less sensitive to magnetic fields than conventional springs, and quotes a 57-hour power reserve.

Announced prices are 995 US dollars in steel and 1,095 dollars with PVD.

Find out more on the brand's website.

Lorige makes a case from the brakes of a Le Mans winner

Swiss independent Lorige has presented the BL-Evolution “Competition”, an edition of 50 pieces whose case is made of carbon/carbon recovered from the brake pads of Inter Europol Competition's LMP2 prototypes. The team's No. 43 and No. 343 cars finished first and second in class at the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Carbon/carbon is a composite of carbon fibres in a matrix that is also carbon. It is used in racing brakes because it withstands very high temperatures without losing strength, and it is light. The tonneau-shaped case measures 50 by 42 mm and is 10.3 mm thick, with a grade 5 titanium bezel and caseback and 50 metres of water resistance.

The hand-wound calibre LOR-DB03 is made by Chronode: 175 components, 29 jewels, 21,600 vibrations per hour and two barrels for 168 hours, or seven days, of power reserve. The dial is gradient sapphire. Price is on request.

Find out more on the brand's website.

New York: Antiquorum returns and Phillips opens an online sale

Antiquorum returns to the United States on 18 October with the sale “Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces” at The Ned NoMad in New York. The catalogue is dominated by F.P. Journe, with eight watches according to WatchPro. The highest estimates are for a Tourbillon Vertical, at 800,000 to 1.4 million US dollars, and a Centigraphe Souverain, at 600,000 to one million. There are also two special-order Cartier Crash watches, each estimated at 400,000 to 700,000 dollars.

Phillips, for its part, announced on 1 October its autumn New York Sessions, an 88-lot online auction closing on 9 October, which the auction house describes as the highest-value online watch sale its New York team has organised. The top lot is a Voutilainen 28Sport, one of eight examples in steel, estimated at 120,000 to 240,000 dollars. It is followed by a Patek Philippe ref. 5270J, at 80,000 to 160,000 dollars, and a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona ref. 116506 in platinum, at 70,000 to 140,000.

Find out more on the auction house's website.

What deserves attention

Two of the day's releases tackle the same problem, legibility, by different mechanical routes: Porsche Design puts the chronograph minutes at the centre, Christopher Ward replaces the hour hand with a disc that jumps. In both cases the indication becomes clearer and the movement taller. It is a trade-off worth bearing in mind when comparing thicknesses.

Milan holds the spotlight until Sunday, with Milano Watch Week opening today, the same day Patek Philippe's Watch Art Grand Exhibition welcomes the public. Still on Patek Philippe, WorldTempus reports that Monica Fuchs succeeded Patrick Cremers on 1 October as head of the Geneva Salons, a post he held for more than 16 years.

In Lisbon, the Seiko store opened yesterday as announced, at Rua Rosa Araújo 29, according to NiT. And one to follow is the collaboration Blancpain has announced with Kyoto dyer Sarasa Yoshioka, whose technical details have yet to be disclosed.