Stories through watches

Some brands have appealed to me on paper without anything really coming of it once the watch was on my wrist. Ollech & Wajs does not belong to that club. I discovered the brand through the reissued C-1000, whose heritage, efficient design and uncompromising performance struck me straight away. As the brand released new models, I harboured the wish of holding its watches in my hands and, perhaps one day, of meeting the man who brought it back to life, Charles Le Menestrel. One

A step sideways On this blog, I have mostly written about mechanical watches. So allow me a small detour: one of the watches I most enjoy wearing at the moment has no balance wheel, no rotor. It has a screen. A digital display, figures that light up, a battery inside. It is a Tissot PRX Digital, and on paper it has no business sitting in the collection of someone who loves mechanical watches. Too simple, too electronic, too far from everything that usually makes an enthusiast

There are watches one chooses, and others that, in a way, simply came to us. The two pieces I am going to talk about today belong to the second category. I did not track them down after long research, I did not long for them for months before taking the plunge. And yet, they are today two of the watches I treasure the most. Both are tied to my beginnings in watchmaking in Switzerland. One comes from Longines, the other from Girard-Perregaux, the first two houses that welcomed

The exciting thing about watchmaking is that there are always new brands to discover. I come across new ones almost every day. Some don't catch my eye; others do, such as Maurice de Mauriac. I discovered this family business, founded by Daniel Dreifuss, a former banker who fell in love with the city of Zurich and decided to set up his watchmaking brand there. Together with his sons Leonard and Massimo, they create watches that reflect who they are. The more I learned about th

Une montre qui mérite que l'on passe outre son design clivant.

About where the pleasure in collecting watches is.

In my early days as a self-proclaimed watch enthusiast, I quickly came to focus exclusively on mechanical watches, considering quartz ones less interesting. Time has passed, and I now wear a digital, quartz watch. How did this happen? Reminiscence. If someone asked me what my first watch was, I would say "Festina". I remember that little quartz watch well, playing with its rotating bezel, which hasn't really changed to this day. Now that I'm writing these lines, though, I rea

When I was a child, I travelled a lot within my own country, France. It was worth it, and still is. There are so many places to see, atmospheres to soak up, lands to explore and towns to visit. I went abroad rather late. I had already graduated from law school. In 2016, I took a big step and set off to Peru with my backpack. At that point, I was convinced that the more distant the destination, the greater the pleasure. Scotland had always appealed to my girlfriend and me. We

'm one of those people who can feel connected to objects. It might be a pen, a knife, a lighter or a watch. My Oris Big Crown Pointer Date (BCPD) is one of the best examples. I've been wearing it for almost a year now, and I can say a real bond has formed. Before I tell you why this watch matters to me, let's go over the more conventional aspects. The watch is 40 mm in diameter, 48 mm lug to lug and 12 mm thick with its domed sapphire crystal. These dimensions make it wearabl