Slimming Down for the Season: Ultra-Thin Watches

Now that summer is coming to an end and fall is just around the corner, now is a good time to swap out those colorful water-ready timepieces for something more restrained. Step into the world of ultra-thin watches, where mastery is measured in how few millimeters a case height reaches. From a simpler time and date version to a complex tourbillon and a few surprises in between, here are four incredible ultra-thin watches to show us how it’s done.

By Adrienne Faurote

Winding Down The Summer With The Richard Mille RM 67-02

As we enter September, the days are already noticeably shorter, and the sun is losing its power. Many try to hang on to the summer just a little bit longer, participating in activities that make summer always such an enjoyable time. A watch that shares the sentiment is the RM 67-02 by Richard Mille. While the brand has far more complicated creations, it is this time-only watch that in many ways represents the essence of what they are all about.

Dark Delights: Four Watches With A Black Case That Are Anything But Boring

Black is a color that is nearly always appropriate to wear. Also in watchmaking does it have a dominant position, especially when it comes to dials and straps. Black cases were for a long time a rarity. At the beginning of the last century, some brands, like Cartier, for example, experimented with bakelite cases. These watches were scarce then, and even more so now. Later on, new technologies such as PVD-coatings made it that more watches with black cases entered the market. Today there are several materials which a brand can utilize to create a black watch case. Next to the traditional PVD-coating, are there now coatings made from 'Diamond-Like Carbon,' which are more resistant to wear. Next to coatings did also a whole new generation of materials emerged. Ceramic was one of the first to make its entrance, but now even carbon, in various forms, is being used to craft watch cases. Their popularity is increasing, and for a good reason, because no matter what black-colored material is selected, it often results in watches that are true dark delights!

Clear As Day: When Watches Reveal All With Sapphire Cases

While gold, steel, and platinum are mainstay metals for watch cases, modern watchmaking has welcomed plenty of other materials in recent years. From bronze to titanium to ceramic and more, offering familiar models in new materials has been a popular approach of many brands looking to offer fresh iterations of old favorites. And it doesn’t get fresher than a crystal clear case in full sapphire—a material once reserved as the glass protecting the dial or movement. Feast your eyes on four extraordinary examples of watches with sapphire cases.

A Fleet of Auto-Inspired Watches In Honor of Monterey Car Week

For anyone who is into cars, today marks the start of one of the most exciting periods of the year in the automotive space: Monterey Car Week! It’s well established that a passion for high-end cars and fine timepieces often overlap, and the luxury watch industry habitually draws inspiration from the auto industry. So in honor of Monterey Car Week, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite auto-inspired watches from some of the world’s top timepiece brands.

From The Archives: Four Amazing Pictures

A picture can sometimes say more than a thousand words. At Haute Time, we have the privilege of having the world's most exclusive, rare, desirable, and expensive watches in front of the lenses of our camera's. Over the years this has resulted in an archive filled with the most amazing photos; time for a little flashback!

Four Tourbillons That Make Your Head Spin

Of all the complications, the tourbillon must be the most mesmerizing. It is therefore not surprising that most brands also make this complication visible from the dial side so that whoever is wearing it, can fully enjoy it. For others, this is not enough, and they like to take the tourbillon to a whole other level;

Daring Divers: Four Diving Watches For People With A Taste For The Extreme

Diving watches are often among the most robust creations of the watch world. The demands put on these watches are usually extreme, that is when you are a professional diver. For the amateur diver or people who don't dive at all, these features are often not needed to the extent that they are created. However, their impact on the look of the watch makes it that they have become, and remain, very popular. These four watches are perfect examples of extreme diving watches that also make a statement outside of the water.

Richard Mille’s Launches Ultralight Carbon TPT Bracelet

One of the things for which you almost must be an industry insider to know is the tremendous amount of efforts and resources that go into developing a new type of bracelet for a watch. While this may seem like a relatively simple task, the bracelet not only needs to fit the watch and look good but also be very comfortable to wear, on a wide variety of different wrists. On top of that do bracelets have to be able to cope with quite some stress, even with normal day-to-day activities. This means that a lot of thought, engineering and prototyping goes into making such a bracelet a reality. This gives you some idea of what Richard Mille had to go through when creating their new bracelet for the RM 07-01, although their journey was even more challenging, as it is made from Carbon TPT.

Four Dress-For-Success Watches

Style without substance is pointless, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't put any efforts in the way you dress and look. Dressing well is a sign of respect, towards others, but also yourself. This is also not necessarily always in a suit or a tie, as in today's world you can be just as professional in a more casual outfit. Of course, your watch game has to be on point, but with the four watches below that is not a problem.

What Current Watches Will Be Tomorrows Auction Favorites?

It has happened to many watch collectors; they look over a list of watches that have been auctioned off only to realise that they didn't buy a specific model years ago when its prices were much more modest. It remains very complex to determine beforehand which watches will show a strong value over the years. Rarity plays a role, as well who made the watch, but as the Paul Newman Daytona probably proofs best, they might currently not even be among the most popular timepieces available! These four watches might be up there one day:

A Handful Of Our Favorite Ladies Watches From SIHH 2019

With reduced sizes, blankets of diamonds, and fresh marketing language that drops gender categories, it is clear that big watch brands have their eye on women’s wrists. It was difficult to pick just a few from the wide assortment, but here are some of our favorite ladies watches from SIHH 2019.

SIHH 2019 Day 1: The Sweet Taste Of A Thriving Industry

We already suspected it from the quality of the pre-releases this year, but all our doubts where further taken away at the first day of the 2019 edition of SIHH: the watch industry is thriving! It showed this not only by many new creations but also by the beautiful different interpretation of familiar models.

Four Sports Watches To Beat Those New Years Resolutions

No excuses; A commitment to yourself is just as important as the ones you make to other people. The holidays are a great time to enjoy the company of friends and family and indulge in the good things of life, but now it is time to get back into the thick of things, and you can only excel in that when you are the best version of you that you can be. So don't meet those new years resolutions, but beat them. These four sports watches won't do it for you but can help you achieve the goals that you set for yourself.

How Celebrities Took An Active Role In Watch Design

In the last few decades, it has become a common practice for watch brands to team up with actors, athletes, and other well-known individuals as a part to market their products. In the beginning, this approach was often quite simple, combining a famous name and face to a watch model already existing in the collection. In some cases, special limited editions were made, but again it was usually the watch brand that decided on the design, with limited influence of the celebrity.

Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number: The Young Guns of Horology

In the luxury watch space, a brand’s long history is often touted as an advantage as it signals experience, longevity, and continued relevance. Some of the most recognized fine timepiece houses are well over a century old and some are even more than two. Yet, as old as watchmaking is, there’s always room for new companies with fresh ideas.

SIHH 2019: What To Expect?

While many people are gearing up for the holidays, the watchworld is already preparing for the first big event of 2019; the SIHH. While only insiders of the participating brands know exactly what new products will be launched, by now, we can already tell what kind of year it is going to be. We can base this on two things: the pre-released watches, and the ones we already have all the details of, but cannot share yet due to an embargo.