Hello and welcome to the Fourth Wheel’s weekly news bulletin. Week two and I’ve broken my self-imposed 20-minute limit (albeit only by about 50 seconds), but I blame LVMH for launching so many noteworthy watches. In years gone by - and this varies significantly brand-to-brand I must add - LVMH Watch Week has occasionally carried the clear sense that the best releases are being held back. I don’t doubt that this year the biggest launches will still come at Watches & Wonders, but my point is that this is a pretty credible swathe of new models in its own right. Among other things, we have:
A new mainstream(ish) watch from Tiffany
Louis Vuitton’s updated worldtimer
A skeletonised Daniel Roth
TAG Heuer’s first split-seconds Carrera
The headline news for today, however, is a new version of MB&F’s LM Sequential Evo, now with flyback functionality. I make no apologies for my fondness for this movement in all its forms. It’s a belter.
Elsewhere we have a little look at Richemont’s latest financial report and what it means for the watchmaking division, profile new launches from Oris - the Big Crown Pointer Date Bullseye1 - and VPC, whose new dive watch claims to be the thinnest to ever achieve a 200m water resistance rating. That provides a neat link to last week’s Fourth Wheel review of the Nomos Club Sport neomatik Worldtimer.
I wrap up with my independent brand launch of the week, the intriguing Independent Atelier, whose debut creation is an homage to the work of the late Chinese master Kiu Tai Yu. This is a fascinating story in its own right. Enjoy listening!
Imagine if it had missed the mark as a design… oh what a gift!
