Hello and welcome to the Fourth Wheel’s weekly news bulletin. In an uncharacteristic move, I start this week with a look at the watches worn on the red carpet at the Oscars, but don’t worry. We are talking about the inside baseball of teasing unreleased watches, and I explain why Omega can be a lot more upfront about theirs than Jaeger-LeCoultre (but why it’s also less fun).
The main item today is the news of Dominique Renaud’s new watch, the one hertz Pulse60, which also heralds the arrival of a new brand, a new umbrella company and a number of mildly confusing acronyms. At the heart of it, however, is a real genius doing some really complicated and fundamental things with escapement architecture and other such heartland geek-fodder. The Pulse60 launches in three variants, and I promised I would provide some pictures, so here you go:
I also talk about Greubel Forsey’s final chapter for the sports-adjacent Balancier Convexe S2 - and what might replace it. There are new watches from Rado, Sarpaneva, Girard-Perregaux and Kollokium that are absolutely worthy of your time but which I sadly ran out of room to cover in any detail whatsoever - links below - and last but not least I give a minute to the worrying - if only in a fairly niche capacity - news that historical observatory trials data, the calculations by which chonometry prizes were awarded in Neuchatel and Geneva in the mid 20th century could be… completely wrong. This is Velociphile’s scoop and I urge you to read the full story on his Substack.
This Friday I will be reviewing the Ming Starfield, a watch with many talking points, but none more obvious or divisive than the design of its bracelet. You’ll find that in your inboxes as usual at 10:10 UK time. Until then!
Links discussed in today’s episode:
Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next week for more.
Chris
