Alexander Stilcken

Over at Schaffhausen, one tends to focus on just one collection each year. Last year it was the Portugieser line, which underwent both a revision and extension. This year, however, another IWC favourite is in the limelight; pilot's watches. These models have always enjoyed a huge level of popularity at IWC – both with design-orientated…

If you're going for a four-digit watch, your expectations will have risen considerably in comparison to our Buyer's Guide Part 1, which took you through watches from 150 to 1,000 euros. Consumers are justified in expecting something pretty special for a watch over 1,000 euros. It usually means higher quality, finesse, and perhaps also a…

Sailing has played an important role for Panerai for a long time. In fact, involvement in the sport is pretty much in the brand's DNA. Wind, salty sea air, a longing for the ocean – all sum up the Luminor. But what is currently taking place off the coast of New Zealand, and what Panerai…

The fascination with watchmaking is characterised by superlatives. There are timepieces with which one could dive to the bottom of the deepest ocean, which combine as many complications as possible, which are ultra-exclusive and rare, and ones that leave every watch enthusiast dreaming of them. A focus on high performance makes the industry stand out…

The new References 7137 and 7337 draw our gaze towards the great tradition and craftmanship of Breguet ­– a place where people prefer to take a leap forward than follow the latest trends Abraham-Louis Breguet was your average teenage student; the kind with pitiful levels of concentration, and a constant daydreamer. At least, this is…

For means of being transparent, this article must start with a confession: the author of this story is not exactly unbiased. Blue, in all its many shades, is his colour – starting with his admiring view of the oceans, and not ending with a slowly but surely exuberant selection of jackets and shirts in every…

To speak of a modest-looking watch would be inappropriate for such a complex model with such a long history. However, if one looks at the versions currently representing the collection, the latest Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph is probably the most discreet version of them all. Yellow gold with a silver-opaline leaf ­– this is…

As you might have heard, Patek Philippe invested 600 million Swiss francs into its new factory building in Plan-les-Ouates, which was completed earlier this year. If you are wondering what such a large sum was spent on, and how the Stern family is envisaging the balancing act between preserving tradition and looking to the future,…

How a Rolex, Zenith and Ressence proved to be the right watches for braving the eternal ice. Our author was faced with this question: Which timepieces to take to an Antarctic journey? ‘There is no law south of the 50th latitude – and there is no god south of the 60th latitude’, seafarers used to…

An Echo of the Past: With its [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph, Audemars Piguet takes a look back into the past - and simultaneously allows for more freedom in the future. The Russian-French world chess champion Alexander Aljechin (1892-1946) is credited with having said: “With the help of chess, I shaped my character. The game of chess…

It is one of the biggest privileges of our time: To have space to ourselves. To enjoy the wideness. To become one with nature, rather than bumping into masses of people in an overcrowded city. This is how life was long before the current world crisis, and will probably become an even bigger and more…

Watch enthusiasts are more or less used to conversations with friends and relatives who don’t share their horological passion: it mostly consists of explaining, enthusing, justifying, and sometimes arguing about the fact that different occasions call for different watches. On the one hand, that’s perfectly correct, but on the other hand, there are exceptional timepieces…