Business & Industry
WatchPro
Citizen smashes sales and profits records in the UK
Citizen Watch UK posted record numbers for the year to March 2026: turnover up 8% to £36.8 million and operating profit up 11% to an all-time high of £2.5 million, with Bulova's 150th anniversary editions singled out for driving sell-through and market share. The result tracks the wider story of Japan's big three (Citizen, Casio, Seiko) outrunning the Swiss, with combined Japanese sales up 12% last year against a 4% reported decline at Richemont's watchmakers. Parent Citizen's global watch turnover rose 10% to ¥197 billion, having doubled since 2020-21, a reminder that the accessible-to-mid tier is where the volume growth still lives.
WatchPro
Arena Club is bringing the thrill of the unboxing to luxury watch collecting
Arena Club, the collectibles marketplace co-founded by Derek Jeter, has launched Time Boxes, a mystery-box product that lets buyers digitally reveal authenticated watches from brands including Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Cartier, with published odds and tiered grails. Winners can vault, ship, or sell back to Arena Club at 90% of estimated value for instant liquidity. The real play is demographic: it targets younger, digitally native trading-card collectors the watch trade has long struggled to reach, betting that pack-opening DNA translates into watch buying.
WatchPro
CORDER’S COLUMN: Why have Rolex prices doubled?
WatchPro's Rob Corder crunches 50 years of numbers to argue that Swiss watch prices have doubled in real terms since the mid-1970s (a steel Rolex went from roughly one month's average UK wage to two) while the product improved by only about three seconds a day in accuracy, with the rest being a luxury status premium. His fix: suspend price rises, reform bloated distribution and the abused "Swiss Made" rules, and let "zombie" firms fail rather than propping them up via a Kurzarbeit furlough scheme now stretched past 30 months, all while Seiko, Citizen and Casio have grown by getting cheaper. The commercial sting is that family-controlled Swatch, Richemont and LVMH answer to no retail shareholders, so their inaction on three years of cooling demand looks like a choice.
WatchPro
THE BIG INTERVIEW: Los Angeles jeweller talks retail theatre and new store openings
Hing Wa Lee, the 61-year-old California jeweller now run by second-generation chairman David Lee, is betting on experiential, hospitality-led retail to differentiate itself from mono-brand boutiques and corporate consolidators, with its Larchmont townhouse concept (Ducati room, guitar collection, wine and dining spaces) as the template and a Saint-Tropez-inspired Laguna Beach development slated for 2028. The play leans on an advantage the groups can't easily copy: personality, plus owned real estate that frees Lee from return-per-square-foot math and independence from PE or public markets. As brands keep pulling allocation to open their own stores, Lee's message to the trade is that multi-brand survival now runs through loyalty and repeat visits rather than product alone, with a Wharton-MBA third generation waiting in the wings.
Quill & Pad
H. Moser & Cie: Inside an Unbrand
Q&A profiles H. Moser & Cie's "unbrand" strategy under the Meylan family (MELB Holding, 2012), tracing how provocations like the Swiss Alp, Swiss Mad, and Frankenstein watches built one of independent watchmaking's most recognizable identities atop a vertically integrated manufacture. The piece notes Moser's graduation from the Carrée des Horlogers to a main W&W 2026 booth, its 2023 stake in movement-maker Agenhor, and teases "big things" for the brand's 1828 founding anniversary. The takeaway: family ownership frees Moser to take polarizing risks a shareholder-answerable CEO couldn't, and that unpredictability is now the point.
aBlogtoWatch
Wait A Minute! Why Should I Pay A Ton For A Watch With A Third-Party Tourbillon?
An aBlogtoWatch op-ed skewers a brand pricing a watch at $25,000 around an almost entirely unmodified third-party tourbillon while its press copy claims to have "tackled" the complication. The real story is the collapse of tourbillon economics: what was once a $140,000 flex is now a $2,000 module thanks to Horage, BCP Tourbillons, and China, pushing genuine manufactures toward inclined and heliotourbillons while exposing anyone charging a premium for casing a bought-in movement.
Auction & Market
Hodinkee
Auctions: Buzz Aldrin's Watches Are Coming To Auction
Sotheby's New York's Space Exploration auction includes 24 watches from Buzz Aldrin's personal collection, heavy on Omega (a 1990s Speedmaster Professional cal. 861, an X-33, a Constellation "Owl" Day-Date) plus a JLC/LeCoultre Shark Deep Sea diving chronograph and a box of sentimental keepsake watches; online bidding is open ahead of live sessions starting July 15th. Aldrin's Apollo 11 Moonwatch isn't here (still lost and US government property), and the writer's real takeaway is a market thesis: as tastes shift from mid-century tool watches to neo-vintage independents and precious-metal pieces, the boomer-hero provenance premium is fading (see McQueen's Monaco hammering at $640K against a million-dollar estimate), though Aldrin's historical stature may prove an outlier.</parameter> <parameter name="categories">["dive", "chronograph", "vintage", "tool"]
Community & Culture
WatchTime
History, Craftsmanship, and the Classique 7637: A Spotlight on Breguet Minute Repeaters
WatchTime traces Breguet's minute-repeater lineage from Abraham-Louis Breguet's 1783 gong-spring invention to the current Classique 7637 Repetition Minutes, a 42mm watch in 18k rose or white gold. It runs the manually wound Caliber 567/2 (368 parts, 40-hour reserve, small seconds at 9), with gongs fixed directly to the movement plate and tuned by hand. The commercial subtext: repeaters remain the ultimate proof-of-craft flex, and Breguet leaning on its historical patrimony is how it justifies sitting at the top of the complications hierarchy.
Revolution Watch
Leica’s Watches are Ready For Their Close-Up
In a wide-ranging interview, Leica Watches MD Henrik Ekdahl frames the camera maker's watch push as a deliberate, "small and credible steps" diversification play, one that leans on a "Made by Leica" ethos rather than Swiss-Made or Made-in-Germany labels (production currently spans both countries). Since launching the manufacture-caliber ZM 1 and ZM 2 in 2022, Leica has added the more accessible self-winding ZM 11 (41mm) and ZM 12 (39mm, small seconds, no date), with the colorful blue-and-orange ZM 12 its current best-seller. For an industry watching brand extensions warily, the tell is Ekdahl's candor: Leica is a "start-up" in watches, its camera reputation "both a strength and a burden," and the goal is added value without diluting the mothership.
Fratello
A Century Of Automatic Watch Movements With Fortis And John Harwood
July 13, 2026 marks the centenary of the first Fortis Harwood automatic wristwatches leaving the Grenchen manufacture in 1926, built on John Harwood's 1924 Swiss patent (No. 106583) for a bumper-style oscillating-weight winding system with no crown (the bezel set the time). Roughly 30,000 Harwood automatics were produced before full 360-degree rotors became standard, and in 1956 Rolex publicly corrected the record in the London Sunday Express, crediting Harwood as the inventor of the self-winding wristwatch. Fortis still builds in the same Grenchen building, a reminder that provenance is a marketing asset the brand is now leaning into on a milestone anniversary.
Reviews
SJX Watches
Cartier Santos-Dumont Obsidian is Volcanic Class
SJX Watches goes hands-on with the Cartier Santos-Dumont LM Obsidian (Ref. CRWGSA0123), a yellow gold model on a new retro mesh-link bracelet with a genuine volcanic-glass dial, powered by the Piaget-derived cal. 430 MC and priced at US$52,000 before taxes as regular (non-limited) production. They praise the obsidian dial as the standout (high contrast, subtly not-quite-black, and more interesting than the classic silver variants) and rate the all-gold bracelet as well made and fairly priced given the gold content, though their one reservation is the sub-32mm "LM" size, wishing Cartier had used the larger XL case for more wrist presence. For the trade, SJX frames the roughly $50k price as "reasonable" today, crediting Richemont's industrialized testing and homologation for a bracelet more durable than jewellery-grade lookalikes.
Worn & Wound
The Split GMT
Worn & Wound goes hands-on with Split, a London independent making its U.S. debut with a Miyota 9075 true GMT in a Ceramod+ composite case (under $1,000, with The Delta reviewed at $903). The reviewer praises the legible dial, true-GMT function, and the brand's MusiCares tie-in (one hour of funded therapy per watch sold) but faults the case-to-bracelet integration on a 5.75-inch wrist and openly questions whether the composite justifies its price against rivals like Swatch's bioceramic line. For the trade, that pricing scrutiny of "ceramic composite" branding is the takeaway: reviewers are increasingly asking sub-$1K brands to justify materials claims.
Monochrome Watches
The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech Date, a Truly Purposeful Three-Hour Dive Watch
Monochrome Watches goes hands-on with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Tech Ref. 5019A, a Grade 23 titanium (47mm, 14.81mm thick), 300m dive watch that adapts a GMT mechanism into a patented three-hour dive-timing bezel for closed-circuit rebreather diving, now with an added date and the light-absorbing Absolute Black dial; it runs the calibre 13P5A with a 120-hour reserve and lists at CHF 20,500 / EUR 24,150 / USD 27,200. They praise the intuitive three-hour bezel, the two-colour lume, the tool-free interchangeable strap and how manageable the titanium makes such a large case, framing it as a more everyday, wearable take on the specialist Tech Gombessa. Monochrome notes some may prefer the cleaner date-free Gombessa dial but sees the date as a sensible fit for a watch positioned as a versatile daily piece.
New Releases
Fratello
Yema Pays Tribute To The French Navy’s Submarine Forces With The Navygraf Barracuda CMM.20 Limited Edition
Yema marks the French Navy's 400th anniversary with the Navygraf Barracuda CMM.20 Limited Edition, a 39mm steel diver (46mm lug-to-lug, 12.1mm thick, 300m) with a forged carbon dial and bezel, tactical red accents, a red-tinted "Forces Sous-Marines" caseback, and the in-house micro-rotor caliber CMM.20 (70-hour reserve, -3/+7 accuracy). Limited to 400 pieces at €2,249/$2,590/£2,040 on strap or €2,499/$2,890/£2,260 on bracelet, available now on Yema's site. Developed with the Marine Nationale, it's Yema leaning into the manufacture-caliber-plus-national-story playbook that has quietly turned the Navygraf into a credible enthusiast line.
Hodinkee
The Krayon Parhelion, A Maximalist Take On The Brand’s Anywhere Watch
Krayon has unveiled the Parhelion, a fully gemset take on its Anywhere sunrise/sunset complication, with 159 baguette-cut sapphires blanketing the 42mm white gold case (including 35 in the buckle alone) and a debut "Krayon Cut" Y-shaped stone at 12 o'clock. The 9.5mm case houses the manual-wind Caliber C030 (3Hz, 72-hour reserve, latitude/longitude configured at ordering), with Krayon-cut white diamond markers on a light blue mother-of-pearl dial. Priced at CHF 430,000, available now, not a formal limited edition but produced in very small numbers.</parameter> <parameter name="categories">["complications", "dress"]
Worn & Wound
Maurice de Mauriac Releases their Latest Tennis Themed Limited Edition Rallymaster
Maurice de Mauriac has released the Rallymaster Swiss Tennis, the latest in its tennis-themed series designed by Carlton DeWoody, revealed at the Swiss Open in Gstaad and leaning into Swiss flag colorways to mark the brand's role as official timekeeper of Swiss Tennis. The 39mm steel watch (12mm thick, 100m water resistant) runs a Landeron 24 automatic with 40 hours of reserve, features a tennis-net dial graphic, red seconds scale at 9:00, red date at 3:00, and a yellow-tipped seconds hand, shipping on a Milanese mesh bracelet plus an extra fabric strap. Priced at $2,950, limited to 130 pieces, available for pre-order on both the Maurice de Mauriac and Swiss Tennis websites.
Also at: Hodinkee
Monochrome Watches
The Bulgari Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar Now Comes in Blue Titanium
Bulgari has released a blue titanium version of the Octo Finissimo Perpetual Calendar, still the world's thinnest at 5.80mm in a 40mm sandblasted case, now finished in blue PVD with a blue varnished dial, grey rhodium-plated hands, and a matching alligator strap. It runs the automatic calibre BVL 305 (2.75mm thick, 21,600vph, 60-hour reserve) with retrograde date, day, month, and leap-year indications. Limited to 50 pieces at EUR 76,000.
WatchTime
Bell & Ross and S.T. Dupont Celebrate the Art of Cigars with the BR-05 Chrono
Bell & Ross has teamed with S.T. Dupont on the BR-05 Chrono S.T. Dupont, a cigar-themed limited edition of 150 pieces in a 42mm two-tone steel and 18k rose gold case with a tobacco-gradient dial and the BR-CAL.326 automatic chronograph (Sellita SW510 base, 60-hour reserve). Each comes with a Makassar ebony humidor for 50 cigars plus a matching Ligne 2 lighter and cutter, priced at $15,200 on strap and $19,800 on the two-tone bracelet. The full-lifestyle bundle signals Bell & Ross leaning harder into experiential luxury tie-ins to justify five-figure pricing on a Sellita-based caliber.
Monochrome Watches
The New Speake Marin Ripples Portobello, Inspired by London’s Colourful District
Speake Marin extends its Ripples line with the Portobello, a lavender-dialled edition inspired by the London district, using the unchanged 40.3mm x 9.2mm stainless steel La City case (water-resistant to 50m) and the brand's hand-finished dial with 12 engraved ripples under translucent lavender lacquer and small seconds at 1:30. It runs the proprietary automatic calibre SMA03-T (tungsten micro-rotor, 28,800vph, 52-hour reserve) built by Le Cercle des Horlogers, and comes on a lavender denim-embossed calfskin strap. Immediately available, priced at CHF 22,900 excluding taxes.