Last week while I was at a local Authorised Dealer photographing some new watches that just arrived in Singapore, a fellow collector and acquiantance was also at the dealership as well and he had his GO Navigator Perpetual on his wrist. I have always found the GO perpetuals interesting due to the text windows compared to many that uses subdials.

So I offered to do a few quick snaps of his watch which I later discovered had turned out grainy due to wrong ISO setting. Nevertheless, after a bit of tweaking with Photoshop and converting the images mostly to B&W the images were still useable. For some unfathomable reason, this watch has not been widely photographed even though its one of the most affordable perpetual calendars.

To view the images, CLICK HERE to see the report on ThePurists.com GO forum. Hope you like the images.

Some weeks ago several watch collectors - mainly Purists members, were invited to the home of Mr Mark Gordon who has been a resident of Singapore for some time. It was a most memorable evening as he shared with us the history and details of the Russian watch industry and the various watches he has amassed over the years. Check out the report of this wonderful evening here by SJX (photographs of the evening was by - yours truly) -

For the Chinese New Year Weekend, I would like to share with the Sinn fans here a few selected photographs of a rare timepiece - the Sinn Regulator (with blue indicators and hands) taken recently at the local Authorised Dealers - The Hour Glass.

This watch has humble origins and a basic unitas movement but its 44mm case and interesting regulator layout makes this new piece an interesting watch. The guilloched dial is quite pretty as well. The only grouse I have is the unusual large number font - which to me is a tad loud. This watch would have been in my collection in a heartbeat if not for the large stretched font. In any case, I am sure many here will appreciate this watch as it is.

SINN REGULATOR Photo Report featured on ThePurist.com Forum.

This year, the first Breguet watch I photographed featured a new silicium gear which is intended to provide some technical benefits due to the higher levels of stability from using the new element. The 4746 is a classically designed watch without any hint of the new technology that is found inside.

Some months ago I discussed here the potential issues of the spread of the use of silicium or silicon based parts in watch manufacturing. I hope that the brands will cognizant about the risk of overusing silicium parts. Fortunately, Breguet here has restricted the use of this element only in the train gear - seen here purple in colour.

Have a look at my photographic report I made on the Purist to see more. To view the report CLICK HERE.

I have not been one who is enamoured by tourbillons due to the astronomical cost of the complication and its disputed value in providing greater accuracy in light of today's materials and technology used in watches.

However, there is no doubt that the tourbillon complication is amongst the most respected by collectors as it was until recently only the domain of a few watch houses.

For the longest time, there was only one tourbillon that I felt deserve some respect - the famous GP three bridges tourbillon. Its symmetrical layout and beautiful execution has made these timepieces wonderfully collectible. As a subject of photography, the three bridges is full of great detail.

While I do not wish for a tourbillon (what ever brand) in my collection, a GP Three Bridges would be for me the first on the list - if I ever decide to have one.

Have a look at the photomontage and see if you agree with my view of it being one of the most desirable tourbillons today. CLICK HERE to see the photomontage.

For much of its history Jaeger-LeCoultre was a little ebauche manufacture, supplying the best and brightest of the Swiss watch industry. Its movements are found in watches by nearly all the big brands - Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Breguet, just to name a few.

Since the acquisition of JLC by Richemont at the turn of the millennium, JLC has slowly but surely climbed its way up the ossified hierachy of the watch industry.

To call the JLC ambitious would be a understatement. JLC has done it all, from the bargain priced Master tourbillon all the way to the mind boggling Gyrotourbillon which rotates on three axes.

Some industry observers see JLC's strategy as misguided, drawing a parallel with the automotive industry. Volkswagen, champion of the people's car, created the super-luxury Phaeton saloon and Touareg upmarket SUV under the guidance of its steely chairman, Ferdinand Piech. While the Touareg is selling decently, the Phaeton is a flop, selling so few in America that it was withdrawn from sale in that market. It is still too soon to tell if JLC's plan of attacking every single segment of the watch market will succeed, but one surely cannot fault JLC for trying.

The jewel in the crown came last year, the 75th anniversary of JLC most's famous watch, the Reverso; in 2005 Jaeger-LeCoultre premiered the Reverso Grande Complication à triptyque, one of the most complicated wristwatches ever made. Amongst other things, it contains a perpetual calendar on the third face of the watch (pictured right), along with sunset and sunrise indicators, a celestial star chart, a zodiac indicator as well as a unique, patented tourbillon escapement. And of course it tells the time.

A drawback of the mind boggling complications is the gargantuan size of the watch. But the point of grande complications, especially in today's hyper competitive watch industry run by vastly ambitious men (most are men), is not to tell the time or the position of Sagittarius. Such watches are monuments to the watch companies and the people behind them. Grande complications of this size and scale are to mark the company's perceived arrival in the top tier.

After IWC was ressurrected by Gunter Blumlein and his team, the firm premiered the Il Destriero Scafusia, a wristwatch with 21 functions. In the early nineties, after J. C. Biver had created the Blancpain mystique out of thin air, the Le Brassus firm unveiled the 1735, composed of over 740 parts. Each of these watches signified the return of brands which had been pummelled, nearly to extinction, by the quartz revolution.

Similarly, the Reverso Grande Complication à triptyque is JLC planting its flag firmly on the territory of traditional high horology houses - its former clients.

(For more in the metal photos of the watch, see Jerome Berder's pictures on ThePuristS Jaeger-LeCoultre forum here.)

- SJX

I had wanted to published this review for some months now and I managed to get a few of my friends to contribute their views on the Sinn U1/2. I thought that the review would be more interesting to readers if it had the opinions of several collectors who own the U series watches for sometime to give their feedback on their watches.

This review is an ongoing piece to which I will add more opinions from owners as and when my friends contribute to me.

To read the review, CLICK HERE.

During my opportunity to photograph the De Bethune watches some weeks ago, I photographed DB22 (featured earlier - see below), DB Digitale, DB MaxiChrono and the DBS. I have here a small collection of photographs of the very unique Digitalle which is in many ways different from most conventional watches. Its a mechanical timepiece that shows of the time with jumping hour function and the Day Date Month in a window at the top. This is so different that I did not take to it in the beginning but its slowly growing on me.

Have a look at these images and consider - is this watch too different or it makes sense? Check out the images by CLICKING HERE.