$1,001-$5,000

Last month at Baselworld, Hamilton introduced a sleek new skeleton watch, the Jazzmaster Viewmaster Skeleton. It is presented in a 40 mm stainless steel case with an open case back and powered by the H-20S caliber automatic movement. At 12 o’clock, just below the “Hamilton” logo on the silver and anthracite colored chapter ring, you can see the balance wheel, hairspring and escapement as they oscillate. Indexes are applied to the chapter ring and include luminous paint. On the men’s model Hamilton designers left off the 12 and 6 o’clock hour markers, however, the 36 mm lady’s model (shown below) does have all twelve hour markers.

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Back in September of 2012, we interviewed Michele Sofisti, the recently appointed CEO of the Sowind Group and discussed the future of the group’s two major brands - Girard Perregaux and JeanRichard. Mr. Sofisti assured us that great things were on the horizon for both brands, the latter of which is undergoing major changes from logo to design to brand positioning. Indeed, exciting things are on the horizon at BaselWorld, but we don’t have to wait until then to introduce a great piece currently available. The JEANRICHARD Terrascope is that piece, and we recently had the opportunity to strap one on for a week in New York City and see what its all about.

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Seiko has announced two new watches with fired porcelain enamel dials that pay homage to the first Seiko wristwatch. These special Seiko Presage 100th Anniversary Enamel Dial watches will be released in January in two variations: time/date (shown above, right) and power reserve (shown above, left) — in a limited production of 500 each.

The Presage power reserve version (ref. SARW005) comes in a classic 40.5 mm by 13.3 mm stainless steel case with a curved sapphire crystal and an screw-on exhibition case back. It is powered by Seiko caliber 6R27 — an automatic mechanical movement with a hand winding function, 29 jewels, antimagnetic protection, a seconds hack function and a 45-hour power reserve. The dial is fired porcelain-enamel with painted Roman numeral hour markers, central hour, minute and second hands, power reserve indicator at 9 o’clock and date at 6 o’clock.

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Baume & Mercier will be launching an all new watch collection at the upcoming SIHH show in January. The Clifton collection — inspired by a vintage 1950s timepiece — is distinguished by a double-beveled case design. Available in stainless steel or 18K red gold, with alligator leather straps. The Clifton collection will retail between $2,700 - $6,300 and is expected to be available in stores by April 2013.

The models being previewed all have small seconds dials, however, I’ve already seen central seconds models that will be announced as well. Stay tuned as those should be announced at SIHH (or sooner). Click below for individual descriptions and more photos.

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At Baselworld earlier this year Victorinox Swiss Army introduced redesigned versions of their popular dive collection: the Dive Master 500M (mechanical) and the Dive Master 500 Mid-Size (quartz).

The Dive Master 500M collection (shown in red) comes in a 43 mm Black Ice PVD stainless steel case and is powered by a self-winding mechanical movement (ETA 2892.A2). The dial is protected by a flat sapphire crystal with scratch triple interior coated anti-reflective treatment. Unidirectional rotating dive bezel with 20-minute indicator. Luminescent hands, hour and bezel markers. Functions include hours, minutes, seconds, date. Screw-in crown and caseback. Water-resistance to 500 meters. Available in red (shown), blue, brown, black or dial. Genuine rubber strap matching the dial color, pin buckle.

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Since being founded in 1961, German watchmaker Sinn has specialized in navigation clocks professional pilot watches. And while they do not produce their own movements in-house, they have developed a number of their own technologies, such as: a lubrication free escapement (DIAPAL), an anti-foggin technology (Ar-Dehumidifying) and TEGIMENT (a way of hardening steel to greatly increase scratch resistance).

The Sinn Model 144 St Sa is a pilot chronograph which comes in a 41 mm x 14.5 mm stainless steel case with a bead-blasted matte finish. It features a sapphire crystal in front and back (both with an interior anti-reflective treatment). The case back is secured with screws and the crown screws down. Water-resistance is 200 meters.

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Originally unveiled at Baselworld in March, the Heritage 1942 Chronograph pays homage to archival Longines wristwatches from the 1940s. The Heritage 1942 has a classic look, but with a modern case size of 40 mm by 12.5 mm. Fully polished (mirror finish) case, with flat sapphire glass which protrudes slightly above the fixed bezel and features an effective anti-reflective treatment. Its round pushers are consistent with vintage chronographs and further add to its vintage feel. The case back is sapphire, allowing a view into the self-winding column-wheel chronograph caliber L688.2 (ETA A08.L01) movement; the same movement used in the Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph that we featured here last year, which has 27 jewels, a frequency of 28,800 vph (4Hz) and a 54-hour power reserve.

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