Jack Forster

POSTS BY Jack Forster

Thin Watch, Big Time: The Ralph Lauren Slim Classique Square Guilloché

Once upon a time, there was a word that described what every man aspired to be: a gentleman. Shockingly enough, virtues like subtlety and self restraint were prized as the hallmarks of a man worthy of the respect of his fellows (as well as the admiration of the ladies) and ostentation and look-at-me brashness just meant you still hadn’t learned that the speaking softly part of speak softly, but carry a big stick is just as important as the stick. In memory of that time, and as a reminder that gentleman still means something worth striving for, we present for READ MORE

Sound and Vision: The Zenith Open Power Reserve El Primero Chronomaster

The year was 1969, and one of the last great problems in watchmaking lay unsolved: how to make an automatic, or self-winding, chronograph watch. Though the automatic chronograph has become more common, at the start of 1969 they didn’t yet exist. Zenith changed watchmaking forever when they introduced the watch aptly known as the “El Primero” (the first) which was the first self-winding chronograph watch with a full-sized rotor for the automatic winding system. The El Primero was revolutionary in more than one way as well: it was also the first automatic chronograph with a balance (the regulating element in READ MORE

The World Is Yours: The Breitling Chronomat GMT

You see a lot of watches out there with two hour hands, supposedly designed for travelers — one hour hand to tell the time at home, and the other for the local time. But not all two time zone watches are created equal. In the vast majority, the 12-hour local time hour hand (two time zone watches usually have a 12- and 24-hour hand) can’t be set independently. To reset the watch to local time, you have to set it as you would an ordinary watch, and then set the 24 hour hand to home time — two operations, one READ MORE

NAKED TIME: THE VISIBLE MAGIC OF THE MONTBLANC TOURBILLON BI-CYLINDRIQUE

Montblanc, the company known since 1909 for its iconic pens, is a relatively new presence in fine watchmaking but clearly means to be as well known for its timepieces as for its writing instruments. In an amazingly short time Montblanc has not only delivered watches that fulfill the high expectations one justifiably has of the company in terms of design, it’s also created high complications that would be the pride –and are the envy –of watchmaking houses decades or centuries older. Their newest flagship complicated watch: the Montblanc Tourbillon “Bi-Cylindrique.” The tourbillon is a complication that even a newcomer to READ MORE

CLEAN MACHINE: THE CARL F. BUCHERER PATRAVI EVOTEC CALENDAR

The Patravi EvoTec Calendar has a quiet beauty that’s easy to miss at first, and it wants to be loved for its brain as well as its body –but then, that’s what you want in a long term relationship, right? While other watch companies try to woo with wild designs, or wow with über-pricey complications whose cost would make even a trust fund baron think twice (and maybe wonder just how much steak comes with all that sizzle) Carl F. Bucherer makes watches that actually respect your intelligence. As the saying goes in watch collector circles, some watches impress your READ MORE

Less Is More: The Art Of The Ultra Thin Watch

What goes around, comes around –call them ultra thin or extra flat, thin dress watches are back, and a rose by any other name would be just as elegant. Though a newcomer to fine watchmaking in recent years might be forgiven for not knowing it, making a thin watch (and wearing one) was for decades considered an indispensable sign of sophistication. Only a top watchmaker could make a very thin watch, because a very thin watch needs a very thin mechanism inside, and during the golden age of the wristwatch –the period just after the end of World War II READ MORE